MACRON: EU IS TO BLAME
■ ‘WE DIDN’T GO FAST ENOUGH OR STRONG ENOUGH ON VACCINES’ ■ FRENCH PRESIDENT PRAISES U.S. FOR ‘SHOOTING FOR THE STARS’... BUT OPTS NOT TO MENTION UK
FRENCH president Emmanuel Macron has made the startling confession that the EU is to blame for botching its own Covid vaccine rollout.
As its leaders met online to consider seizing exports of jabs to Britain, he told them: ‘We didn’t shoot for the stars. ‘We were wrong to lack ambition, to lack the madness, to say it’s possible, let’s do it. Everybody – all the experts – said never in the history of mankind was a vaccine developed in less than a year.’ But Mr Macron could not bring himself to praise the UK’s own successful vaccine gamble, which has meant nearly half the population has had a jab compared with 14 per cent in the EU, now hit by a third wave of cases.
Instead, he said: ‘You can give that to the Americans. As early as the summer of 2020, they said let’s pull out all the stops and do it.
‘As far as we’re concerned we didn’t go fast enough, strong enough on this.’
Talks on a ban came as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen complained it had exported more than it administered – but admitted its pile of unused doses had risen to 26million.
Take-up has been slow partly because criticism by EU leaders, including Mr Macron, undermined public confidence.
Many also halted the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab over claims it caused blood clots, before Europe’s own medicines agency declared it safe.
Warning the EU may impound second doses due here in the next few weeks, Ms von der Leyen said: ‘Together, we will ensure that Europeans get their fair share of vaccines.’
But EU leaders were divided
yesterday. German chancellor Angela Merkel insisted: ‘Even if the move is detrimental to non-EU nations, the goal is to force vaccine manufacturers, especially AstraZeneca, to deliver the doses agreed to in their contracts.’
But her predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker told the BBC: ‘We have to pull back from a vaccine war. We have special relations with Britain, this cannot be dealt with in a war atmosphere. We are not enemies, we are allies.’ And he backed Mr Macron, calling the EU ‘too cautious’ in approving vaccines and ‘too budget conscious’.
The drug firms were stung by criticism. Anglo-Swedish Oxford/AstraZeneca pointed out French firm Sanofi and Germany’s CureVac had supplied nothing – despite receiving orders for 700million.
A source at the firm, which delivered 30million EU doses at cost price, said it would not work without a profit again.
US-German Pfizer/BioNTech warned of a ‘lose-lose’ situation for everyone, also
for members of the European Union.’
Downing Street called for co-operation, and health secretary Matt Hancock said Britain had simply struck better deals than the EU. ‘I believe free trading nations follow the law of contracts,’ he said. ‘They have a “best efforts” contract and we have an exclusivity deal. Our contract trumps theirs.’
Another 338,000 people had first doses in the UK yesterday, making 28,991,188 so far. The daily death toll fell to 63 from 9 a week earlier, with 6,397 new cases. The
UK lowered its Covid alert level to three after the number in hospital fell from 39,000 at the peak of the second wave to 4,000. France announced 4 ,641 new cases and 22 deaths today.
EU leaders also wrangled about how vaccines were distributed. Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said: ‘When member states have a lot less vaccines available to them than others, then I think this is a big issue for Europe.
‘This could cause damage to the EU like we haven’t seen in a long time.’