EU moves toward stricter export controls for COVID vaccines

The European Union is moving toward stricter export controls to ensure more COVID-19 shot supplies for the bloc that should boost its flagging vaccine drive.

The EU's executive body said Wednesday on the eve of a summit of the 27 leaders that it has plan ready to that more vaccines produced in the bloc are available for its own citizens before they can be shipped for exports.

EU nations have been specifically stung by the United Kingdom, which has received some 10 million doses from EU plants while they say nothing came back from Britain. The EU now insists on reciprocity as it sees vaccination rates in Britain racing upwards, while the bloc proceeds at a crawl.

The EU has been specifically irked by Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca. Last week, the European Union's chief executive warned that the EU would not hesitate to take action against third-party nations.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU has approved the export of some 41 million vaccine doses to 33 countries in the last six weeks and believes that it stands at the forefront of international vaccine-sharing efforts.