Fury as EU tries to stop ‘3.5million Covid jabs’ reaching the UK and accuses Britain of ‘hijacking’ doses

THE EU today slapped vaccine export ban rules on the UK today after sensationally claiming Britain is "hijacking" doses.

Eurocrats announced new controls on the UK which could allow it to block life-saving jabs getting to the UK, including 3.5 million from Pfizer BioNTech.

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The jabs are understood to be arriving from Pfizer's plant in Belgium in the coming weeks - part of a 40 million dose order from the UK government.

But EU health chief Stella Kyriakides insisted: "We're not protecting ourselves against any specific country, and we're not in competition or a race against any specific country."

The new rule, which comes into force on Saturday and lasts until March, means vaccine makers will have disclose all shipments they've made abroad in the last three months to try to catch out those heading to the UK.

It comes as the EU also slapped controls on Covid-19 vaccines moving from the bloc into Northern Ireland, using powers it has to override the Brexit deal.

The move came despite grace period of a year on checks on medicines moving from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland.

As tensions boiled over chief eurocrat Ursula von der Leyen accused AstraZeneca of misrepresenting its contract with the bloc and ordered the firm to find up to an extra 50 million doses for the continent from Britain.

She told German radio: "In the contracts, two production facilities in Great Britain are also mentioned, which are intended for the production of the vaccine for the EU. How you manage it is up to you.

"There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear. The phrase 'best effort' does not exist. There are clear delivery quantities that are in the contract.

"What irritated us was that, unlike the other companies, AstraZeneca very suddenly announced that it was drastically reducing its agreed deliveries for the first quarter and did not provide understandable reasons why. Now we want clarity on that."

But furious Tory MPs accused the EU of trying to "cover up" its own failures with the jabs export ban - as one top eurocrat stoked tensions by accusing Britain of trying to wave a "vaccine war".

It comes as

• Britain was handed a major boost by the news the Novavax jab has proved effective
• A medical chief said future vaccines could come in pill, patch, and nasal spray form
• It was warned pubs and restaurants won't reopen until May

Brussels was accused of "disrupting" the global effort to conquer the coronavirus pandemic with its move to slap new restrictions on shipments to Britain and other countries outside the bloc.

Senior Brexiteers expressed astonishment at eurocrats' increasingly bitter public attacks on AstraZeneca, branding them "pretty petulant".

Tory MP Peter Bone told TalkRadio: "They're becoming bullies now. They're trying to cover up for their own failures and as a bully they are charging around.

"Of course the way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them and AstraZeneca and the other vaccine companies are standing up to them.

"All bullies are cowards and they will back down. If they think that by making a lot of noise and trying to jump the queue they can cover up for their failures I think they're gravely mistaken."

Fellow Conservcative John Redwood fumed: "The EU’s bad conduct over vaccines is disruptive to the world effort against the pandemic.

"Astra Zeneca is part of the answer to the virus, not the problem."

And Tory Simon Clarke added: "We need better than raids on a legitimate company’s factories and attempts to undermine confidence in successful and effective vaccines in the UK."

'VACCINE WAR'

Their criticism came after the EU's justice commissioner Didier Reynders accused the UK of trying to stoke a "vaccine war" with the continent.

He told Belgian radio station RTBF: "Our goal is now that all European countries receive, at the same time, vaccines in proportion to their population.

"Transparency is needed, not that there is a vaccine war. Maybe Britain wants to start a vaccine war, but we have programmed vaccines for European countries and our partners."

And as the row hit boiling point Croatian PM Andrej Plenkovic accused Britain of "vaccine hijacking".

He blasted: "Some countries didn't have a united approach like we in the EU and have obviously offered more money for vaccine doses."

Belgium, where the Pfizer jab is made, has already jumped the gun by drawing up its own national powers to shut down exports.

Eurocrats have tried to play down the likelihood of millions of Pfizer doses being stopped from reaching Britain, insisting the system is designed to monitor exports and they will only intervene in "rare cases".

But one well-placed EU source told The Sun: "It's not a monitoring system, it's a blocking mechanism."

Under the plan customs authorities in EU countries will have to notify the Commission every time jabs are being sent to the UK - allowing them to keep an eye on our supplies.

The move is a huge ramp up in the ongoing vaccine war of words between Britain and the EU over access to vaccines - as Brussels continues to lag far behind the UK's rollout.

An EU official said earlier that they would have the power to block experts, saying: "There is a possibility in certain circumstances not to allow the export to move forward.

"We want to ensure we have a say about where these vaccines are ending up in a situation where we are now in a shortfall of supply."

Pfizer has announced a shortfall in production at its Belgian plant, where jabs destined for Britain are made.

Member States are fighting to take the toughest possible line to get their hands on any extra supplies after facing furious criticism for their slow rollouts.

The official said: "If the batch is refused naturally it would stay in Europe and distribution would happen according to the plan."

For now the new controls only apply to completed vaccines, but eurocrats said they could be widened to cover the ingredients that go into making them too.

The move comes amid a growing row between Britain and Germany over the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine in over-65s.

Berlin's health ministry has recommended the jab shouldn't be given to under 65s because there's "insufficient data" to prove it works in that age group.

It comes despite Germany's health minister Jens Spahn admitting today: "We still have some difficult weeks of vaccine shortages ahead of us."

But the European Medicines Agency is expected to defy that ruling and approve it for all age groups, according to the head of Germany's vaccine regulator.

And Boris Johnson has hit back at Berlin, insisting the vaccine is perfectly safe for older people.

He said that the Oxford jab “is a good vaccine and so I’m very confident about it”.

He added: “The evidence that they’ve supplied is that they think that it is effective across all age groups. It provides them a good immune response across all age groups, so I don’t agree with [the German decision].”

It came after Brussels ordered a spot-check on AstraZeneca's factory in Belgium on Thursday night to check it isn't lying about delays to production- as eurocrats' feud with the drugs giant grows ever more bitter.

The EU Commission sent in inspectors from the Belgian medicines agency into the plant amid an increasingly fractious row over Europe's stuttering jabs rollout.

Its extraordinary move was confirmed in a statement by the office of Belgium's health minister Frank Vandenbroucke, which said it was "to make sure that the delivery delay is indeed due to a production problem".

Belgian experts were joined by colleagues from the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain on the raid and will then draw up a report which is set to be released within "a few days".