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* EU reverses plan to trigger Brexit clauses
* EU tried to restrict vaccine exports to UK
* UK seeks urgent answers, expresses concern
* Irish PM expresses concerns to EU chief
(Adds EU reversal)
By Andy Bruce, Kate Holton and Marine Strauss
LONDON/BRUSSELS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The European Union on
Friday abruptly reversed course on a plan to use emergency
Brexit measures to restrict exports of COVID-19 vaccines through
the Irish border to the United Kingdom after it sent shockwaves
through Northern Ireland, London and Dublin.
In a steep escalation of the EU's fight to secure vaccine
supplies, Brussels had said it would trigger clauses in the
Northern Irish Protocol to prevent shots moving across the open
border between EU-member Ireland and the British-run province.
Following an outcry in London, Belfast and Dublin, the EU
published a statement just before midnight saying it would
ensure that the Northern Ireland Protocol, designed to keep the
border open, would not be affected.
It warned, however, that should vaccines and active
substances move toward third countries and out of the bloc, it
would use "all the instruments at its disposal".
The very public reversal followed a round of frantic calls
as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told EU Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen of his "grave concerns" while
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin spoke to both Johnson and
the EU chief to find a solution.
Northern Irish unionists cast the move as an act of
hostility.
The swiftest mass vaccination drive in history is stoking
tensions across the world as big powers buy up doses in bulk and
poorer nations try to navigate a financial and diplomatic
minefield to collect whatever supplies are left.
The EU, whose member states are far behind Israel, Britain
and the United States in rolling out vaccines, is scrambling to
get supplies just as the West's biggest drugmakers slow
deliveries to the bloc because of production problems.
The European Commission has agreed a broader plan to control
exports of vaccines from the bloc, including to Britain, arguing
it needed to do so to ensure its own supplies.
But the EU's action in Northern Ireland triggered anger.
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster described as
"an incredible act of hostility" the decision by the EU to
invoke Article 16 of the Northern Irish Protocol, which allows
Britain or the EU to take unilateral action if there is an
unexpected negative effect arising from the agreement.
"The European Union has once again shown it is prepared to
use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the
most despicable manner – over the provision of a vaccine which
is designed to save lives," Foster said.
(Reporting by Kate Holton, Andy Bruce and William James;
Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Daniel Wallis and Grant McCool)
