Mon dieu! Here comes great vaccine EU-turn
Climbdown as Brussels offers ‘win-win’ to avert jabs war
BRUSSELS stepped back from the brink of a vaccine war with Britain last night following a furious backlash by member states.
In an apparent climbdown, the European Commission agreed a joint statement with the UK offering to work to find a ‘win-win’ solution to the row.
The statement came at the end of a day of brinkmanship in which Brussels tabled proposals allowing it to block the export of vaccines to the UK.
Boris Johnson warned that blockading lifesaving vaccine supplies would do lasting reputational damage to the EU and deter international firms from wanting to invest there.
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt branded the proposed export ban ‘idiotic’ and warned it could wreck the EU’s relations with Britain for years.
‘Step by step the EU is destroying the possibility of a long-term partnership and friendship with its closest neighbour,’ he said.
The UK-EU joint statement last night acknowledged the third wave of cases in Europe made co-operation more important but said no resolution had yet been reached.
‘Given our interdependencies, we are working on specific steps we can take – in the short, medium and
‘Co-operation will be key’
long term – to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all our citizens,’ it said. ‘In the end, openness and global co-operation of all countries will be key to finally overcome this pandemic and ensure better preparation for meeting future challenges.’
However, EU leaders will meet today to decide whether to press ahead with restricting vaccine exports to the UK and ministers remain concerned that Brussels could yet deploy its new powers.
Mr Johnson refused to rule out retaliatory action – which could see the UK suspend the export of vaccine ingredients – although he made clear he was not in favour of the move at this stage.
Negotiations are thought to centre on an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands.
One Whitehall source said: ‘They have armed themselves with a bazooka and pointed it at us – it is quite incendiary, not to mention morally and legally outrageous.’
France and Germany have backed a hardline stance as they try to deflect attention from their own sluggish vaccination campaigns. A source close to French president Emmanuel Macron warned that the EU would no longer continue to be ‘the useful idiot’ in allowing jabs to be shipped overseas while the bloc struggles for supplies.
But the prospect of a damaging ban has alarmed a string of other EU countries. Ireland has declared the idea a ‘very retrograde step’, while Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland and Sweden are also said to harbour concerns.
Yesterday began with an extraordinary raid by Italian authorities on an AstraZeneca plant wrongly suspected of preparing to export millions of doses to Britain. In fact, the 29million jabs were destined for other EU countries and parts of the Third World.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen then published ‘temporary’ powers allowing the EU to block the export of jabs to countries such as the UK which have higher vaccination rates.
The plan could threaten millions of doses of the AZ vaccine due to be shipped from the Netherlands.
But it could also cut off the UK’s entire supply of the Pfizer jab, which comes from Belgium. Such a move could jeopardise the ability of the NHS to administer second doses of the vaccine.
A further threat to the UK rollout emerged last night as India was reported to have blocked all major exports of the AZ vaccine because infections there are soaring.
Two weeks after five million doses for the UK were stopped, sources said Narendra Modi’s government has now implemented a complete ban on exports by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine manufacturer.
The move will also affect supplies to the Covax vaccine-sharing facility through which more than 180 poorer countries are expected to get doses, one of the sources said. Covax would also be hit by any EU ban. Its co-chairman Jane Halton said any threats from Brussels to hold vaccine exports hostage would be ‘extremely regrettable’.
EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides denied the plans amounted to an export ban, adding: ‘We’re dealing with a pandemic and this is not seeking to punish any countries.’
One EU diplomat said Britain had ‘taken a risk’ by leaving itself ‘extremely dependent’ on the EU for second doses of the Pfizer jab.
‘Extremely regrettable’
FOR years, the EU has boasted of being a beacon of free trade, rationality and respect for rules-based order.
Today, thanks to its increasingly unhinged behaviour over Covid jabs, the bloc risks joining the ranks of the world’s tyrants.
Desperate to divert attention from its dizzying ineptitude in botching its own rollout, the European Commission threatened a vaccine war with Britain.
Escalating hostilities dramatically, it set out draconian powers to block the export of millions of doses to our shores – putting UK lives in danger.
Leave aside the fact the UK Government gambled heavily on vaccine research; exported expertise to make the Oxford AstraZeneca jab available worldwide for no profit; and moved at lightning speed to secure supplies, while the EU dithered.
By demanding, with incendiary effrontery, that private companies hand over lifesaving drugs we have paid for, the Commission is acting not like a torchbearer of democratic norms, but a rogue state.
Of course, with a third deadly wave hitting the Continent, the EU is in meltdown. But a vaccine shortage is not the problem. Millions of vials sit unwanted in EU fridges because, embarrassed by Britain’s stellar success, its leaders wickedly smeared the AstraZeneca serum as unsafe.
Consequently, its citizens are refusing the jab – and many will die unnecessarily. Thankfully, cool heads may prevail after Boris Johnson, rising above the unedifying fray, warned the EU risked irreparable reputational damage.
Post- Brexit, this was the EU’s first philosophical and moral test. By spitefully seeking to harm its nearest neighbour, it has severely poisoned relations.
When will Europe’s political elites see this crisis is about saving lives, not saving face?