The prospect of an international clash over supply of coronavirus vaccines appears to have eased after the European Union decided not to ban exports.

The measures had been under consideration at a summit of the blocks leaders.

But after talking over video link until late on Thursday evening, they decided instead to back tougher controls on exports of jobs made in the EU to third countries.

Similar measures already exist but have only been used once.

It seems that enough of the leaders were worried about the possible effect on global supply chains to hold back on.

Taking that next step here is the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, outlining what they agreed.

We have to want to explain to our European citizens that they get their fair share and therefore the second principle is that companies have to honor their contract to the European Union before they export um to other regions in the world.

And this is of course, the case with AstraZeneca.

Um, I think it is clear for the company that first of all, the company has to catch up has to honor the contract it has with the European member states before it can engage again in exporting, um in exporting vaccines.

Miss Fonda Lynn wants what she calls reciprocity on exports of vaccines, and she feels the European Union has been exporting far more than it's been using itself.

That's put pressure on European leaders, whose vaccination programs have been noticeably behind some other countries.

What's the reality of this situation?

Well, China, the USA, the E U and India are the main producers of covid vaccines.

Between them, they've produced around 470 million doses, with six different vaccines in youth.

The UK, Russia, Switzerland and South Korea trail behind the top four producers.

The United States is the only one of the top four vaccine producers not to have exported any doses.

More than half of vaccines produced in China and India do head to other countries, and for the EU, it's about a third.

So where are the dose is being produced in the European Union being sent?

From the beginning of February to the middle of March, the EU exported 41 million doses of covid vaccines to 33 different countries.

The U.

K, the fifth biggest producer of vaccines received nine million doses from the EU.

Canada was the next biggest importer, with four million received from Europe.

Mexico not far behind with three million doses.

Well, I'm joined now by Swedish politician jitter juice.

Holland, who is a member of the European Parliament, joins us from Brussels.

Thank you very much for being with us here on BBC News.

Do you think we are going to reach a point where there are export blocks of vaccines?

I think we need to do everything to avoid that.

Actually, we are very interlinked in this pandemic.

We are in this together and we are also when it comes to the vaccine supply very interlinked between the countries.

So it would hurt us all if we get to that.

From what I've seen you saying, one of your key concerns seems to be transparency about what is being produced and where it's going.

I think that's really important, the transparency part because that's the way also, we can put political pressure on different countries to act reasonable in all this because it's actually not reasonable from the U.

K.

Not to help out here more when we know how much the U is exporting in vaccine doses to the UK, I believe it should be very reasonable that, uh, the same courtesy should be back.

And that's why transparency is so important.

So we know the figures, so we know who gives to who and so we avoid the export ban.

So is it your feeling that in this the U.

K.

Is behaving badly, to be blunt?

I mean, we we don't need to, uh, to use hard works, but we need to make it very clear that the EU is one of the biggest export when it comes to vaccine in the world.

And since December, I believe it's 21 million doses of vaccine that has been exported to U.

K from the EU, and when we are in this situation now signed the contract with AstraZeneca.

And when we see that they are not delivering, um, as fair as they should to the citizens of the E.

U.

Then of course, that's the problem.

I think solidarity a very polite way of saying yes.

But the last question I want to ask you is because AstraZeneca is Anglo Swedish.

There's a what 2.5 1000 employees in Sweden.

Uh, is it a vaccine that is trusted by the Swedish public?

I would say it's trusted by the public.

Uh, I think most people see that the value of getting a vaccine that is tested, that is, uh, the investigation has been there to prove it's safe.

I believe that the Swedish people see the value of that and how many lives can be saved.

But that said, there is also a rightly so many people who are angry with how AstraZeneca behave when it comes to the contract with the EU.

Just just island.

Thank you so much for your time.