EU rejects accusations of COVID-19 'vaccine nationalism'

European Council President Charles Michel on the subject of Tuesday (Mar 9) rejected charges of "vaccine nationalism" levelled against the EU, saying that while Britain and america have outright bans in exports of COVID-19 shots, the EU hadn't stopped exporting.

The EU has found itself under fire at home for a vaccine roll-out much slower than those of former member Britain or the United States, and abroad for so far doing significantly less than China, Russia or India to provide vaccines to poor countries.The other day it annoyed vaccine buyers abroad by endorsing an Italian decision to halt a shipment to Australia.

Britain had an instant retort for the feedback by simply Michel, who represents the 27 EU member states, saying it hasn't blocked the export of a single COVID-19 vaccine.

"Any references to a good UK export ban or perhaps any limitations on vaccines will be completely false," a UK government spokesman said.

Britain's foreign minister Dominic Raab has got written to Michel to "place the record straight" and a representative of the EU's delegation to the UK has been summoned to a gathering at the Foreign Office, officials confirmed.

"Glad if the UK reaction brings about extra transparency & increased exports, to EU and third countries," Michel explained in a good tweet on Tuesday evening.

The dispute arose after Michel published a lengthy statement on Tuesday afternoon defending the bloc's strategy. He said that without Europe, it could not have been possible to build up and produce different vaccines in less than a 12 months, and EU solidarity possessed ensured that poorer countries of the bloc received their earliest doses.

He took goal at the "highly publicised" supply of vaccines by China and Russia to other countries.

"We should not permit ourselves be misled by China and Russia, both regimes with fewer desirable values than ours, because they organise highly limited but widely publicised functions to provide vaccines to others." Michel also noted that China and Russia experienced both vaccinated fewer persons at home than the EU.

"Europe will not make use of vaccines for propaganda needs. We promote our ideals," he said.

Michel also defended something to regulate the export of dosages stated in EU countries, invoked by Italy the other day to block a shipment of AstraZeneca pictures to Australia.

"Our objective: to avoid companies from which we have ordered and pre-financed doses from exporting them to different advanced countries if they have not sent to us what was promised," Michel said. "The EU hasn't stopped exporting."

He said the EU would become the world's leading vaccine maker in the coming months and was the best equipped to adapt vaccine productivity quickly to virus mutations.

Tensions have got increased between London and Brussels following completion of Britain's exit from the EU towards the end of 2020.

Relations strained by years of bruising talks over Brexit took a move for the worse found in January when the EU briefly threatened to employ emergency measures to avoid coronavirus vaccines going from the bloc into Northern Ireland, a good British-ruled province bordering EU member express Ireland.