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The European Commission has denied a report that the European Union blocked the export of 3.1 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines to Australia.
Italy previously blocked an export of 250,000 AstraZeneca doses to Australia, under new controls that require manufacturers which have vaccine contracts with the EU to apply for permission to export them to certain countries.
“There has been no further development since then,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said when asked about the report. “We can certainly not confirm any new decision to block exports to Australia or for any other country for that matter.”
An Australian government source, who declined to be named because he is not authorised to talk about the matter, told Reuters that the EU “blocked 3.1 million shots so far”.
“We haven’t given up hope but we’ve stopped counting them in our expected supplies,” the source said.
Under the export control system, companies with a supply contract with the EU that wish to export vaccines from the bloc must seek permission from the government of the country where the factory that finishes the doses is located.
The European Commission can support or override the export request, which is evaluated on the basis of whether the company has an unmet contract to supply vaccines to the EU. Exports to developing countries are exempt from the controls.
The system was recently tightened to allow authorities to refuse exports on the basis that the destination has a higher vaccination rate or if it is not allowing exports in the other direction.
So far Italy’s blocking of the 250,000 doses to Australia is the only one of 491 vaccine export requests to be refused, according to EU figures. There are seven pending requests, but these are not thought to relate to AstraZeneca deliveries to Australia.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said that AstraZeneca must “catch up” with deliveries of promised doses to the EU before the company exports vaccines.
The British-Swedish company delivered just under 30 million doses to the EU by the end of March, instead of more than 100 million vaccines initially expected, and has severely cut expected deliveries for the second quarter as well.
Behind schedule
Australia’s inoculation campaign is well behind its original schedule, with only about 670,000 people inoculated against an initial target of 4 million by end-March.
Prime minister Scott Morrison said on Tuesday that missing shipments were responsible for the country not meeting its inoculation schedule.
“In early January, we anticipated we would have the 3.1 million vaccines. Those vaccines were not supplied to Australia,” Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra. “That is the reason.”
Australia has recorded 909 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began and said on Tuesday it would launch a quarantine and test-free travel bubble with New Zealand this month after effectively eradicating the virus by closing borders last year.
While the government blamed the slow rollout on supply issues from Europe, Australian state governments have also complained about slower-than-expected distribution and a lack of certainty on supplies. – Additional reporting from Reuters