European newspapers maul EU chiefs over rollout fiasco

EUROPEAN newspapers have condemned EU leaders over the bloc’s calamitous handling the vaccine rollout.

In a front page editorial, Die Zeit, one of Germany’s most respected broadsheets, described the debacle as ‘the best advertisement for Brexit’, with its London correspondent accusing Commission President Ursula von der Leyen of scoring ‘an unforgettable Brexit own goal’.

An editorial in the Left- wing Spanish newspaper El Pais said: ‘Compared with the action of other executives, the EU has been slow to act and signed contracts with suppliers later, which is now proving to be a problem.’

France’s Le Monde raged in an editorial that the EU’s bid to block exports entering Northern Ireland was ‘deplorable’, and claimed EU leaders were now engulfed with ‘panic’ over how to secure supplies of vaccines.

‘ It is deplorable that political interests and geopolitical rivalries take precedence over the issue that no one should lose sight of: vaccinating as many people as possible, in Europe and in the rest of the world,’ it said.

Meanwhile, newspapers in Ireland met the EU’s action with fury. The Irish Times said there had been ‘political uproar’ over Brussels’s conduct, while The Journal said it had caused ‘alarm across the political spectrum’.