Brussels threatens UK over supply of vaccines
‘Stalinist’ threat to seize factories and block exports unless UK hands over more jabs
THE European Union has been likened to a dictatorship after it threatened to seize factories and block exports of Covid vaccines to the UK unless it gets more jabs.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused the bloc of behaving in an undemocratic way after it threatened the move in a bid to safeguard vaccines for its own citizens.
As parts of the Continent face a third wave of the pandemic, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the EU would use ‘whatever tool’ was necessary to ensure ‘Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible’.
Her threats came despite the fact more than a dozen European countries have stopped their rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab over blood clot fears.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the ‘bitter’ EU is trying to ‘shift’ blame for its slow rollout, adding it was showing ‘a Stalinist level of direction but tinged with incompetence, chaos and contradictions’.
The dispute came as the number of people given the first dose of the vaccine in Scotland passed 2million.
BRUSSELS yesterday issued an extraordinary threat to seize factories and block exports unless Britain gives the EU more Covid-19 jabs.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab suggested the bloc was acting like a dictatorship after it effectively declared vaccine war on the UK.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen warned exports of jabs could be halted to countries with successful rollouts.
She said the EU – which is struggling to inoculate its population – would be prepared to trigger emergency powers to ‘make sure Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible’ – warning ‘all options are on the table’.
Mrs von der Leyen’s threats came despite the fact that more than a dozen European countries have halted their rollout of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca jab over blood clot fears. Last night Mr Raab warned the ‘world was watching’, while ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith called the EU’s position ‘Stalinist’.
The row came just before it emerged Britain itself faces a ‘significant reduction’ of its vaccine supplies, with an issue involving the import of AstraZeneca jabs thought to be to blame.
At a press conference yesterday, Mrs von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels the EU could make use of powers under the seldom-invoked Article 122 of its treaty. They could potentially be used to seize factories, suspend intellectual property rights for vaccine makers such as AstraZeneca, or block more exports of Pfizer jabs heading for Britain. ‘It is hard to explain to our citizens why vaccines produced in the EU are going to other countries that are also producing vaccines, but hardly anything is coming back,’ she said.
‘And the second point that is of importance for us is on whether exports to countries who have higher vaccination rates than us are still in proportion. We want to see reciprocity and proportionality in exports, and we are ready to use whatever tools you need to deliver on that. I’m not ruling out anything for now because we have to make sure Europeans are vaccinated as soon as possible.’
But in an astonishing admission, an EU source said ‘no assessment’ of the legal case for using such powers had actually been made by lawyers at the European Council. Charles Michel, the president of the Council, first raised the idea of using the emergency powers – known as Article 122 – in January.
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine doses for the UK are being produced in BioNTech’s German manufacturing sites, as well as in Pfizer’s manufacturing site in Belgium. However, Britain also gets some of its supply of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine from manufacturing sites on the continent. Any export ban or requisitioning of factories could hit Britain’s supply of both jabs.
Asked about Mrs von der Leyen’s threats yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Britain had ‘legally’ signed a contract for doses manufactured on the continent, and added: ‘We fully expect those contracts to be delivered upon.’
And Mr Raab said: ‘I think it takes some explaining, because the world’s watching. Frankly, I’m surprised we’re having this conversation. It is normally what the UK and EU team up with to reject when other countries with less democratic views than our own engage in that kind of brinkmanship.’
Sir Iain said the EU was demonstrating a ‘a Stalinist level of direction but tinged with incompetence, chaos and contradictions’.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said: ‘I think it would be a dangerous precedent for the EU to simply prevent the export of products that have been manufactured in the
‘A dangerous precedent’ ‘The world is watching’
EU for a global market.’ The threats came despite many EU states suspending the use of the Oxford jab over what experts and the European Medecines Agency insist are misplaced fears about blood clots.
England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam last night warned the bloc: ‘Vaccines don’t save lives if they’re in fridges. They only save lives if they’re in arms.’
SEIZING the means of production and expropriating private property have been favoured tactics of despots down the ages.
From Stalin to Mugabe and beyond, they have sought to distract from their own political shortcomings by confiscating assets that others have worked to build up.
To that list of kleptocrats we may soon have to add the European Union, which seems to be descending further into madness by the day.
In the most astonishing escalation of vaccine hostilities yesterday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested that draconian emergency powers may be invoked to secure the bloc’s supplies.
Under Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, this could mean not just widening the export ban but waiving intellectual property rights of vaccine manufacturers and seizing their factories.
This is far more than mere protectionism. It’s state-sponsored mugging.
To add to the confusion, while Ms von der Leyen threatens to purloin other countries’ Oxford vaccine supplies (including some of the UK’s), half the doses the EU already has are sitting in fridges because the rollout has been suspended over unsubstantiated safety fears.
The whole strategy is deranged, and looks increasingly like a desperate attempt to deflect blame for the Commission’s own vaccination debacle.
Fortunately, the British Government here had the foresight to invest heavily in vaccine research and order large quantities well in advance of production.
We are now reaping the benefit, with nearly half the adult population having received at least one jab and death rates plummeting.
Europe by contrast, is on the threshold of a devastating third wave, as its rollout stalls through dither and doubt.
With people dying unnecessarily, this tragedy is no cause for schadenfreude.
But it does underline the petulant, plodding ineptitude of the EU when faced with a genuine crisis – and shows why the British electorate was wise to cut the cord.