EU leaders go it alone over ‘slow’ rollout by Brussels
EUROPEAN leaders have broken ranks with Brussels over the bloc’s disastrous one-for-all vaccine policy – going it alone to secure jabs for the future.
The EU was forced to deny its joint scheme was ‘unravelling’ as the unity of the bloc crumbled with Austria, Denmark, Slovakia and Poland joining Hungary and the Czech Republic in seeking their own deals for vaccines.
Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he and his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, would work with Israel on the production of ‘ second- generation vaccines’, jabs against future Covid strains.
The European Medicines Agency, he said, had been ‘too slow’ in approving vaccines.
‘We must therefore prepare for further mutations and should no longer be dependent only on the EU,’ he added.
Miss Frederiksen said Denmark had already tried to secure any leftover coronavirus vaccines Israel has and was also critical of the EU’s programme, which saw contracts signed later than the likes of the UK and jab deliveries delayed as a consequence.
‘We need to increase capacity. That is why we are now fortunate to start a partnership with Israel,’ she said.
When asked if Copenhagen and Vienna wanted to take unilateral action in obtaining vaccines, Miss Frederiksen said: ‘You can call it that.’
The moves dent the European Union’s already fragile vaccine solidarity, which saw the bloc negotiating for all 27 members in a bid to drive down prices yet lag behind the UK, Israel and the US.
Poland asked China for vaccines this week, while Slovakia ordered two million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Neither jab has yet been approved by the EMA. Hungary has already taken a delivery of the Chinese jab, while the Czech government – currently facing the worst outbreak of any EU country – is eyeing a deal with Moscow.
European Commission spokesman Stefan de Keersmaecker yesterday insisted the bloc’s strategy had not ‘unravelled’ but admitted that Eurocrats could ‘learn lessons’ from Israel’s vaccination drive.
‘It’s not that the strategy unravelled,’ he added. ‘For our vaccines, we go through the European Medicines Agency because we want to ensure efficacy and safety. What member states do in addition to that, it’s their responsibility.’
Israel has inoculated 93.7 people for every 100 and Britain 31, while the EU as a whole is lagging behind on 7.5, according to Our World In Data.
Officials in Jerusalem believe other EU countries could seek to cooperate with Israel.
‘We are speaking to other governments about these issues,’ said one government source.
This week France was forced into a climbdown, offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab to over- 65s after president Emmanuel Macron’s questioning of its efficacy led to a low take-up. France has used only a quarter of its AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses.
And the U- turn in Paris ramped up pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to follow suit.
State leaders from Bavaria, Saxony and Baden-Württemberg yesterday said Germany’s vaccination campaign has ‘to pick up speed’, with only 15 per cent of its AstraZeneca stock having been used, 87,000 of the 736,800 doses delivered.
The leader of Bavaria, Markus Soder, said: ‘Rather than leave it lying around, vaccinate whoever wants it. No dose should be left over or thrown away.’
Despite seeing higher daily Covid case and death rates than Britain, however, Mrs Merkel is today set to announce a quicker loosening of lockdown restrictions.
Private get-togethers between two households, not exceeding five adults, will be allowed again from Monday, according to reports. nTHE lead scientist behind the Oxford jab welcomed a Public Health England study showing a single dose of either it or the Pfizer vaccine is highly protective in the over-70s. Professor Andrew Pollard said: ‘We’re seeing an 80 per cent reduction in hospitalisation in that group, which is stunning.’
‘We need to increase capacity’