The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for the EU's vaccine contract with drug-maker AstraZeneca to be published, in a growing row over reduced supplies.
The contract signed in August contained "binding orders", she told German radio, and she demanded "plausible explanations" for the hold-ups.
UK-Swedish AstraZeneca is blaming production delays at two plants.
Its vaccine is expected to be approved by the EU medicines regulator later.
The August deal was for 300 million doses for the European Union to be delivered after regulatory approval, with an option for 100 million more.
But EU sources say they now expect to get only about a quarter of the 100 million vaccines they were expecting to receive by March, a shortfall of about 75 million jabs.
AstraZeneca says the production problems are at its plants in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Its chief executive, Pascal Soriot, has said that the contract stipulated that the company would make its "best effort" to meet the EU demand and did not compel the company to stick to a specific timetable.
The EU is under pressure after criticism that the pace of vaccine distribution in several member countries is too slow.
"There are binding orders and the contract is crystal clear," Mrs von der Leyen said in Friday morning's radio interview.
"AstraZeneca has also explicitly assured us in this contract that no other obligations would prevent the contract from being fulfilled," she said.
The company is producing the jab at its UK plants too and there have been no problems with its contract with the UK authorities.
Mrs von der Leyen said two UK plants were mentioned in the contract as production sites for vaccine destined for the EU.
On her call for the contract to be published, she demanded transparency: "We are speaking with the company about which parts need to be redacted. But we want to achieve transparency."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiMGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3dvcmxkLWV1cm9wZS01NTg1MjY5ONIBNGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL2FtcC93b3JsZC1ldXJvcGUtNTU4NTI2OTg?oc=5
2021-01-29 08:05:00Z
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