The European Commission is considering legal action against the Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca for failure to comply with the obligations of the contract signed with the EU. – ALLILI MOURAD / SIPA
The European executive wants to take legal action against the Swedish-British laboratory AstraZeneca, we learned Thursday from European sources. According to these sources, Brussels informed the ambassadors of the 27 member states of its intentions on Wednesday.
The European Commission considers that the laboratory, whose deliveries of anti-Covid vaccines are significantly lower than the figures initially planned, has not respected the obligations of the contract signed with the EU. These same sources affirmed that such an action could be taken before the Belgian courts.
A choice that is not unanimous
But “all the member states do not agree” on the advisability of taking legal action, qualified a diplomatic source. The Commission explained that its priority was to ensure “the delivery of a sufficient number of doses, in accordance with previous commitments” from AstraZeneca.
“With the member states, we are examining all the options to achieve this,” she added, without confirming her willingness to take legal action. On March 19, the Commission already activated a contractual dispute settlement procedure to resolve the dispute with AstraZeneca.
In the first quarter, the laboratory only delivered 30 million doses to the EU out of the 120 million contractually promised. In the second quarter, they plan to deliver only 70 million of the 180 million initially planned. The delays in the delivery of AstraZeneca’s vaccine have created friction between the EU and the UK, in addition to that between the Commission and the laboratory.