BRUSSELS, March 25 (Reuters) - The head of the European
Commission said on Thursday Europe was the biggest vaccine
exporter in the world and challenged other producers of COVID-19
jabs to match that openness.
The EU has been criticised, especially by vaccine-maker
Britain, for "vaccine nationalism" because of its recently
introduced vaccine exports monitoring mechanism designed to
explain why the EU is not getting the shots it contracted from
pharmaceutical companies, notably AstraZeneca.
"Europe is the region that exports most vaccines worldwide.
We invite others to match our openness," Ursula von der Leyen
told a news conference after a meeting of EU leaders.
Von der Leyen said that while the EU exported 77 million
doses of vaccines since Dec 1, 2020, she was not aware of any
vaccine exports from Britain.
(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)