Vaccine politics raise tensions

French official highlights lopsided exports between EU, U.K.

BRUSSELS — European Union vaccine politics reached a fever pitch Friday with charges of British blackmail and unfair practices among EU members flying about as the bloc frantically sought to ramp up production and impose export controls to stave off another deadly surge in coronavirus infections.

Underscoring the ebbing cross-channel relations, French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian highlighted the lopsided exports between the EU and Britain. The EU had approved the export of 21 million doses to the U.K. while none have come the other way since vaccinations began in December.

The U.K. has adopted a policy of quickly giving as many people as possible a first dose of vaccine. Le Drian said that meant the country would struggle to get enough doses to administer the required second shots and that the British government was pressuring to get more supplies, at the cost of the EU’S vaccination drive.

“You can’t play like this, a bit with blackmail, in the sense that you wanted to vaccinate with the first dose at all costs but you find yourself a little handicapped for the second,” Le Drian told French radio network France Info. “It’s not up to Europe to pay the price for this policy.”

Britain denied it faces such a quandary, saying it was confident it had adequate vaccine supplies, but the tension underscored the foul political mood.

The U.K.’S withdrawal from the

EU, which was completed on Jan. 1, already had soured relations, And with 47 percent of Britain’s population having received a dose of vaccine, compared to just 14 percent of the people living in the 27-nation bloc, the vaccine issue stings Brussels badly.

To avoid losing out on vaccines, especially to Britain, EU leaders late Thursday backed a export control system that aims to keep doses in the EU until the company that produces them has fulfilled its delivery contracts to EU nations.

EU leaders accuse British-swedish firm Astrazeneca, in particular, of putting its contract with the U.K. ahead of promises to the bloc.

Britain points out that it signed a vaccine deal with Astrazeneca first and has warned the EU against stopping companies from fulfilling their contracts.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s medicines regulator on Friday said it has approved new manufacturing sites for coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer-biontech, Moderna and Astrazeneca.

In other developments:

■ German health officials warned Friday that the country’s latest eruption of coronavirus cases has the potential to be worse than the previous two last year and urged people to stay at home during the upcoming Easter break to help slow the rapidly rising numbers of new infections.

■ Despite struggling with the worst COVID-19 death rate in the world and record new infections, Hungary announced plans Friday to scale back virus restrictions in coming weeks.

■ With Kenya’s COVID-19 cases and deaths surging, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced tightened restrictions in five of the most affected counties.