[국제]EU warns AstraZeneca to ban exports

[국제]EU warns AstraZeneca to ban exports

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[앵커]

Although the US is doubling the COVID-19 vaccination target and speeding it up, the vaccination rate in Europe has been sluggish due to a lack of vaccine even in a situation where there is concern about a third pandemic.

Given this situation, the EU has decided to openly limit the export of vaccines produced in the EU to outside countries, especially for AstraZeneca, which issued a strong warning to keep the originally promised supply.

Reporter Yeojin Lee reports.

[기자]

Shortly after the 27 member states summit, the EU Commissioner said that it would limit the export of vaccines produced in the EU outside the country until supply in Europe is smooth.

At the same time, he picked up AstraZeneca and urged him to pay the promised amount on time.

[우르줄라 폰데어라이엔 / EU 집행위원장 : 백신 제조회사들은 세계 다른 지역으로 수출하기 전에 유럽연합과의 계약을 이행해야 합니다. 물론 아스트라제네카의 경우가 해당합니다.]

In the European Union, only 4.1% of the population is currently vaccinated at 18.2 million people.

Those who have been vaccinated at least once are 14% of the population, far behind 43% in the UK and 26% in the US.

This is due to insufficient vaccine supplies.

The number of vaccines the EU receives from December last year to this weekend is 8 million doses.

Compared to the 2.6 billion doses of vaccines pre-purchased by the EU, it is very small.

In particular, AstraZeneca promised to supply 120 million batches to the EU in the first quarter of this year, but the actual supply was only a quarter of 30 million batches.

Accordingly, major EU member states, such as Germany, France and Italy, expressed their support for export restrictions.

[앙겔라 메르켈 / 독일 총리 : EU 집행위원회에 동의합니다. EU와의 계약을 이행하지 않는 백신 회사에는 계약을 이행하는 회사보다 강력한 수출 제한이 이뤄지는 게 당연합니다.]

When the criticism of’vaccine nationalism’ came out, the EU refuted that the amount of vaccine produced in the region and taken out of the region was 77 million doses, similar to the amount received by the EU.

In particular, he stressed that although 27% of the export volume, or 20 million batches, went to the UK, there was no import from the UK to the EU.

[에마뉘엘 마크롱 / 프랑스 대통령 : 연초에 미국은 미국에서 생산한 백신을 자국 내에서 우선 사용하는 경향이 있었고 영국은 많은 백신을 수출하지 않았어요.]

In recent years, India, the world’s largest vaccine producer, stopped exporting AstraZeneca vaccines for reasons of its own circumstances, and even the European Union imposed restrictions on exports.

This is YTN Lee Yeo-jin.

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]

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