The bloc is tightening export rules in a bid to speed up its disappointing Covid inoculation campaign and stem political criticism.

By Matina Stevis-Gridneff

BRUSSELS — Tipped off by European authorities, a team of Italian police inspectors descended on a vaccine-manufacturing facility outside Rome over the weekend. They discovered 29 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines, feeding suspicions that the company was trying to spirit them overseas instead of distributing them in the European Union.

Four days of checks later, Italian officials accepted AstraZeneca’s explanation that the doses were going through quality control before being shipped to the developing world, and to European countries.

The cinematic raid — intended to put a little muscle behind European Union threats to make the company stop exporting doses — now stands as a vivid example of just how desperate the hunt for vaccines is getting. It was also a sign of the continuing tensions between the bloc and those it suspects might be cheating.

On Wednesday the bloc flexed its powers even more, unveiling emergency rules that grant it broad authority to halt exports of Covid vaccines made in the E.U., escalating an uncharacteristically protectionist stance and risking a fresh crisis in its fragile relations with Britain, a former member.

Britain has been by far the biggest beneficiary of the bloc’s exports, so has the most to lose, but the rules — if applied — could also be used to curb exports to Israel and others. The legislation is unlikely to affect the United States, and shipments to poor countries through a global consortium will continue.

The moves highlighted the E.U.’s predicament: having launched an ambitious joint vaccine-procurement program last year on behalf of its 27 members, the bloc realized in early 2021 that it had not taken the necessary steps to safeguard supply. It has been falling behind ever since.

For Europeans, facing a punishing third wave of infections, it has been especially difficult to begin locking down yet again, even as some other nations begin to envision a return to some normalcy.

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