Europe’s volte-face on Oxford vaccine
Germany performs latest about-turn on Astrazeneca jab as Italy blocks shipment
THE European Union began blocking exports of the Astrazeneca vaccine yesterday as Europe’s leaders admitted they were wrong about the Oxford jab.
EU countries now recognise that the Astrazeneca jab is vital to ramp up the slow pace of their vaccination programme, which lags far behind Britain, the US, Serbia and Israel, after attacking the British-swedish pharmaceutical company for delivery failures and branding its vaccines “ineffective”.
Germany made the Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine available to over-65s after Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, called for age restrictions to be lifted. New data had proved the jab was “highly effective”.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, sparked fury in January when he branded the vaccine “quasi-effective” in older people, but Jean Castex, the French prime minister, yesterday said the jab was “very efficient” and as good as the other Eu-approved vaccines.
Greece and Sweden have also announced they will lift age restrictions on the vaccine, following Belgium, and Spain is considering following suit.
Italy became the first country to impose an EU export ban on coronavirus vaccines yesterday after blocking a shipment of 250,000 Astrazeneca jabs to Australia.
Brussels introduced the export transparency regime during its row over supply shortfalls with Astrazeneca in January. Under the rules, manufacturers in the EU must ask national authorities in the country of production and the European Commission for permission to export vaccines outside the EU.
Italy blocked the export of the vaccines and the commission did not raise any objections, the Financial Times reported. Rome notified Brussels of its decision at the end of last week.
Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, was described as “defending Italy’s national interests”. The Italian foreign ministry said it objected to the “very high” number of doses that Astrazeneca wanted to export and pointed to “delays on the part of Astrazeneca in the supply of vaccines” for the export ban. It said Australia had registered very few Covid19 cases and deaths compared with Europe and noted the dearth of jabs in Italy and other EU countries.
Italy has 1.5million Astrazeneca vaccines and has administered 322,800 doses. The EU has administered 8.02 doses per 100 people, while the figure for the UK is 32.34 doses.
Astrazeneca in January cut its EU supplies in the first quarter to 40 million doses from 90 million foreseen in the contract, and later said it would cut deliveries by another 50 per cent in the second quarter.
Astrazeneca had requested permission to export the 250,000 doses from its plant near Rome. EU sources said the commission backed the Italian decision because of Astrazeneca’s failure to respect contractual obligations. The company says it is not in breach of contract.
An EU diplomat said that delayed vaccine deliveries to the EU were “putting 30 million European lives at risk”.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, said: “This shows how the EU is desperate and locked into a blame game over their vaccine failure. Irrational, incompetent and isolated, I pity the poor people of Europe who suffer as a result.”
The European Medicines Agency yesterday began a review of the Russian Sputnik vaccine in a first step towards authorising the Russian jab as the bloc looks to ramp up its sluggish rollout.
Italy’s decision to use new EU rules to block the export of a shipment of Astrazeneca vaccines intended for Australia is disgraceful. Brussels presents itself as a progressive force in world affairs and as a leading advocate of free trade. But thanks to its own failure to secure a sufficient supply of Covid jabs, it is now engaging in a beggar-thyneighbour policy of vaccine nationalism.
A similarly vindictive impulse is identifiable in the EU’S attitude towards Northern Ireland. The UK Government has unilaterally extended the grace period for checks on food imports in Northern Ireland, in order to give supermarkets and their suppliers more time to adapt to the onerous post-brexit rules on Irish Sea trade. But instead of recognising that there are problems with the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol that both sides have an interest in resolving, the EU is threatening retaliation.
The EU has never seen trade as a straightforward matter of mutual economic advantage. It has demolished trade barriers within Europe, but largely to further the cause of ever closer union. It has sought to export its rules and regulations on to other countries in return for access to its markets. It has always been more of a customs bloc than a free-trade zone.
However, in the context of a global economy that has been shattered by the response to the coronavirus, its petty and bureaucratic approach to trade appears increasingly ridiculous.
Yesterday, it was announced that the Biden administration would lift US tariffs on Scotch whisky, cheese and other British goods that had been imposed as part of the long-running Boeingairbus dispute.
The UK had already shown its good faith by removing tariffs that this country had levied on some American products. The benefits of this constructive move will be felt by industries on both sides of the Atlantic; hopes for a US/UK trade deal seem much stronger.
The EU could learn something from this. If it insists on digging deeper into the Irish Sea dispute, and refusing to engage with proposals for reforming the Protocol, it will not only damage Northern Ireland or the UK as a whole, but itself too. Europe benefits from British prosperity and vice versa. Our ambition should be a minimum of checks, a maximum of trade, and an effort to work together to rebuild our economies.