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 – an assertion disputed by the EU.