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 The move would mark a further step in an EU plan to sever ties with
the Anglo-Swedish company after it repeatedly cut supplies to the
bloc, contributing to major delays in Europe's vaccine rollout.
The news about the legal case was first reported on Thursday by
Politico. An EU official involved in talks with drugmakers confirmed
authorities in Brussels were preparing to sue the company.
"EU states have to decide if they (will) participate. It is about
fulfilment of deliveries by the end of the second quarter," the
official said.
The matter was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting with EU
diplomats, where most EU states supported the legal action, two
diplomats told Reuters.
However its largest, Germany and France, asked for more time to
think about the possible move, the diplomats said.
"What matters is that we ensure the delivery of a sufficient number
of doses in line with the company's earlier commitments," a
Commission spokesman said. "Together with the member states, we are
looking at all options to make this happen."
There was no immediate response from AstraZeneca on Thursday to a
request for comment.
Brussels in March sent a legal letter to the company in the first
step of a potential court procedure .
When the deadline for a reply expired this month, a spokesman for
the Commission said the matter was discussed in a meeting with
AstraZeneca but the EU was still seeking further clarification from
the company on "a number of outstanding points".
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 The spokesman did not
elaborate, but details of the letter published
by Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera show
the EU was seeking clarification on what it
deemed a delayed application to the EU regulator
for approval of the vaccine.
Brussels also questioned how AstraZeneca spent over 224 million
euros ($270 million) granted by the EU in September to buy vaccine
ingredients and for which the bloc said the company had not provided
sufficient documents confirming the purchases.
Under the contract, the company had committed to making its "best
reasonable efforts" to deliver to the EU 180 million vaccine doses
in the second quarter, for a total of 300 million in the period from
December to June.
But the company said in a statement on March 12 it would aim to
deliver only one third of that. The EU letter was sent a week after
that statement.
Under the contract, the parties agreed that Belgian courts would be
responsible for settling unresolved disputes.
The EU has already decided not to take up an option to buy 100
million extra doses of AstraZeneca under the contract, an EU
official said, after safety concerns about very rare cases of blood
clots linked to the vaccine as well as supply delays.
($1 = 0.8304 euros)
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio and Gabriela Baczynska in
Brussels, Pushkala Aripaka and Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing
by Himani Sarkar, John Stonestreet and Nick Macfie)
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