EU plans tougher controls on vaccine exports

THE European Commission is to call for tougher controls on Covid vaccine exports after it accused UK-Swedish firm AstraZeneca of failing to honour its contract to supply EU countries.

The proposals, to go before EU leaders on Thursday, stop short of a ban but could inflame tensions with the UK.

Under the plans, any shipment of vaccine would be assessed on the country’s rate of vaccinations and vaccine exports.

Meanwhile, millions of AZ doses have reportedly been found in Italy.

La Stampa website says some 29 million vaccine doses due to be shipped to the UK were being stored at the Catalent plant in Anagni near Rome but were discovered by Italian inspectors as part of an investigation by the European Commission.

The reported discovery comes weeks after the Italian government blocked the export of 250,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia, as part of new EU regulations allowing a shipment to be stopped if a company is seen as failing to meet its obligations to the 27 member states.