Taoiseach says EU vaccine export bans would be a 'very retrograde step'

Micheál Martin says the UK should engage with the EU and reciprocate on vaccine flow. Picture: Denis Minihane

The Taoiseach has said he is against the EU placing export bans on Covid-19 vaccines, describing it as a "retrograde step".

Micheál Martin also reiterated that it was vital vaccine supply chains remained open.

However, he said the UK should engage with the EU and reciprocate on vaccine flow.

EU leaders will meet this week to consider export controls on the movement of EU-manufactured vaccines out of the EU.

'Keep supply chains open'

"I'm very much against it," Mr Martin told RTÉ Radio 1's News at One.

"I think it would be a very retrograde step. I've met all of the companies and it's absolutely vital that we keep supply chains.

"If you take the Pfizer vaccine, 280 materials are going to making the Pfizer vaccine; 86 suppliers supply those materials from 19 countries around the world.

You start putting up barriers, other countries may follow suit in terms of some of those vital raw materials that are required.

"If we start that we are in trouble."

Mr Martin said the UK needed to stop the "argy-bargy" and engage with the EU.

'UK needs to reciprocate'

"The European Union has played this straight and I think the UK needs to reciprocate in terms of vaccines manufactured in the UK, particularly AstraZeneca vaccines, and stop the argy-bargy and get down to reality of the situation, which is that AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in Europe had been facilitated to go to Britain," he said.

"That needs to be acknowledged by the UK side and, in my view, reciprocated to some degree."

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who has come under pressure over the EU's relatively poor vaccine rollout, said the EU has the power to "forbid" doses from leaving the bloc.

Her comments reflect growing frustration that the EU is not getting the supplies it expected from the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which is manufacturing the Oxford vaccine.

Johnson 'reassured' by EU

However, Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, has said he does not think the EU wants to block vaccine exports from reaching the UK.

Yesterday, Mr Johnson said he was "reassured", talking to EU partners over the last few months, that they did not want to see blockades.

He is due to hold further conversations with his EU counterparts ahead of the EU's virtual summit on Thursday.