BERLIN — The European Union’s regulator recommended authorization of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for use in the 27-country bloc on Friday, despite a lack of data about efficacy in older people.

European officials had raised concern about the limited knowledge of the vaccine’s effectiveness in older people, who represented only 6 percent of clinical trial participants, though they account for majority of coronavirus deaths and are high on most countries’ vaccination priority lists.

The United States is waiting for further trial data before authorization, and Germany Germany announced on Thursday that it would recommend that the vaccine only be used in adults under 65.

The European Medicines Agency said Friday that while it is not yet known how well the vaccine will work for older people, “protection is expected, given that an immune response is seen in this age group and based on experience with other vaccines.”

Europe’s regulatory decision comes amid a furious fight between the E.U. and the British-Swedish company. AstraZeneca has said its vaccine deliveries to the E.U. would fall short by as much as 60 percent this quarter, after problems at a manufacturing site in Belgium. The E.U. has responded with threats of legal action and export controls while demanding to visit the site in question.

European governments are under pressure as they face a surging coronavirus outbreak, increasingly driven by the more contagious variant of the virus first identified in Britain.

The E.U. had sought to hedge its bets by preordering multiple vaccines — some say, not enough. It has authorized two others at this point: the offerings by Pfizer-BioNTech and by Moderna. ...