An Australian government source quoted by Reuters on Tuesday 6 April said the EU had blocked the export of 3.1 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to Australia.
Asked at a press briefing on the same day, the European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer did not confirm this information. “We cannot confirm a new decision to block vaccine exports to Australia or any other country”, he said. He then referred to the latest figures given by the European Commission to the press, mentioning only a single export blockage at the end of February of 250,000 doses, also to Australia.
With the modification of its transparency and export authorisation mechanism for Covid-19 vaccines on 24 March, the Commission has given itself the option to block more exports of doses. On 26 March, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton said that the EU would block exports of vaccines from AstraZeneca (see EUROPE 12687/9). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)