Ursula and Co can save face by ensuring a fair and equal rollout for all who live in EU
SINCE the very start of this pandemic, the EU, as an institution, has not particularly covered itself in glory. Readers will remember the unseemly reaction of some of its members when the virus hit Italy initially.
A number of fellow nation states refused to come to Italy’s aid in its hour of need. It took weeks for the EU Commission to bring a bit of order to the situation, especially with regard to the dire need to provide PPE to the worst affected areas within its jurisdiction.
Later, as the virus spread, some member states unilaterally decided to close their own borders, contrary to the basic EU rule of freedom of movement. The Commission was, again, belatedly scrambling to try to bring some sense of unity across its domain.
One of the biggest problems for the EU institutions in Brussels is that when it comes to health, it is an area where the Commission has probably the least power to influence or intervene. While Brussels, and some of the larger member states, have pushed for greater and greater integration in other areas such as in the social and economic sphere, health has been the ‘Cinderella’ when it comes to getting some form of common platform across the EU.
Exception
The reason for this is that health systems hugely vary across Europe from country to country. In France, for instance, there is virtually a universal state-sponsored healthcare system, paid for by much higher than average personal taxation by its citizens, where individuals rarely ever have to pay for hospital services or medicines. This is in contrast to most other countries, like Ireland, where there is a mix of public and private systems.
Historically, there has been very little appetite to try to get a common basis system across Europe. The one exception is the E111 regime, whereby EU citizens could avail of health services in countries other than their own. It has proved to be a great success.
But, the inability to get a uniform health system has meant that when it came to a pandemic, the bureaucrats in Brussels did not have the power to order member states to implement common rules. Hence, the haphazard response.
However, when it came to vaccine development, the EU Commission wanted to be on the front foot from the start. With the agreement of the member states, it invested huge amounts of euro into research and development by the best possible candidate companies, who it thought would quickly bring a vaccine to market.
The Commission prepurchased huge tranches of vaccines from a number of companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca. However, its well-intentioned plans quickly unravelled. The deal with the AstraZeneca group has come back to bite the Commission.
That company, which previously indicated that it would provide 80million doses to the EU, announced that it could only provide 31million. A row erupted between the EU and this company which led to claim and counterclaim.
To any independent observer, on reading the contract between the two, published last Friday, it would seem that the EU has right on their side, if it went to court. The company, in my opinion, overpromised something that they could not deliver.
But, unfortunately, the situation is so critical, as regards the vaccine rollout, that the two sides need to halt the megaphone diplomacy immediately. They must transparently agree a new schedule of delivery so that governments can let their respective citizens know what to expect over the next few months.
The row has had the unfortunate impact of pitting the EU and the UK against each other over the rollout of the vaccines. But it also flamed the fires surrounding Brexit which have been smouldering since January 1.
Immediately, after New Year’s Day, the implementation of the Irish protocol, designed to ease Brexit problems on the island of Ireland, has been the source of much disquiet among, mainly Unionist, politicians.
Because of teething problems with supply of certain goods to Northern Ireland from Great Britain, they have been calling on Boris Johnson to implement the provision in the Brexit agreement whereby, either the UK or the EU could, in exceptional circumstances, put in place certain safeguards to take care of unintended consequences of the Irish protocol on the supply chain.
Johnson’s government, quite correctly, rejected these calls, saying it was too early to press the button on this clause, which it felt should only be used sparingly.
Mistake
However, the EU, in a very clumsy move, last Friday, decided to invoke this clause as part of its fight against AstraZeneca, in order to prevent that company’s vaccine leaking into a ‘third country’, namely, the UK, via Northern Ireland.
When I first heard the news of this move, I wondered had the chief negotiator for the EU, Michel Barnier, been made aware of the EU’s move. No doubt, the Irish member of the EU Commission, Mairead McGuinness, was not in the loop about the proposal. Otherwise, she would have called ‘halt’.
Anyone with even the most basic knowledge of the political ramifications of such a move would have been aghast at what was being suggested. Quite obviously, it was a glaring mistake by whoever was involved.
But, unfortunately, the damage was done. It merely allowed Unionist politicians, especially in the DUP, to re-echo their calls for the special arrangements about Ireland in the Brexit deal to be scrapped.
In their rush to counter AstraZeneca claims about the supply contract, the EU bureaucrats, in Brussels, unwittingly, disturbed a political hornet’s nest. They quickly reversed engines, when the folly of their ways was pointed out by the Taoiseach and others.
So, the EU Commission, by its own incompetence, has ended up fighting an even bigger battle than the one it had been trying to solve.
It needs urgently to solve the unseemly row between itself and the AstraZeneca company. And, it needs to, quietly, repair any collateral damage caused by the vaccine row, with the British government, so as to ensure that the Brexit arrangements regarding Ireland, are put back on an even keel.
These were problems of its own making. For once, the EU Commission cannot blame member states for the mess.
One way it can repair its reputation is by ensuring that the rollout of the vaccine across the EU is carried out in a fair and equitable fashion.