EU and Italy block shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia

The European Commission and Italy have blocked the delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines to Australia because the manufacturer did not fulfill its obligations under the contract concluded with the European Union.

The Reuters agency, citing sources, reports that AstraZeneca has requested permission from the Italian authorities to export 250.000 doses from the Anagni factory near Rome.

The Italian government refused to issue the permit, and the European Commission supported it, the sources said.

The European Union used for the first time the possibility of banning the export of vaccines against covid-19.

The bloc in January set up a registry to monitor vaccine exports amid a dispute with a British-Swedish manufacturer to monitor whether the lab is meeting its contractual obligations to the EU.

This mechanism allows the authorities of individual EU member states to block exports to a destination outside the European Union, in consultation with the European Commission, if the bloc believes that the producer has not fulfilled its obligations towards the EU.

AtraZeneca has not yet delivered the promised doses to the European Union and has reduced the planned deliveries from 80 million to 40 million doses, justifying the reduction due to production problems.

It was suspected that vaccines produced in the EU were sold to countries outside the bloc, which is why a registry was established to monitor vaccine exports.