French president Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday he supported stricter EU export controls on vaccines for drug companies that do not meet their contractual commitments with the European Union, reports FRANCE 24.
“It’s the end of naivety,” Macron told reporters after a virtual EU summit.
“I support export control mechanisms put in place by the European Commission. I support the fact that we must block all exports for as long as some drug companies don’t respect their commitments with Europeans,” he added.
Macron said the EU had been late in ramping up vaccine production and inoculations, but was catching up and would become the world’s biggest producer of vaccines this summer.
He added that the EU, unlike other countries, had exported a big part of its production instead of keeping it for itself.