Amid tensions between the European Union and pharmaceutical companies and over Coronavirus vaccine supply chains, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Friday urged the 27-nation bloc to unite and stand firm.
"The EU must act together and stand up for itself. We must get tough with the pharmaceutical companies - no ifs and buts," Di Mao posted on Facebook.
Italy finds it "unacceptable" that COVID-19 vaccine doses produced in Europe are being exported to non-EU countries when drugs companies are not delivering their promised doses to the bloc, Di Maio wrote.
Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca had delivered less than 30 million out of 120 million doses agreed with the EU and seemed not to want to honour supply agreements it had made for the next quarter, Di Maio stated.
"Italy has stepped up its vaccination campaign in recent days, but in April we will need to carry out 500 inoculations a day to vaccinate the majority of Italians by the summer," Di Maio went on.
Vaccinating most of the population will enable Italy to re-boot its economy and open its schools and businesses, Di Maio underlined.
"We have the duty to help millions of businesses that have been suffering for over a year and to give new job opportunities to our young people," Di Maio concluded.
