E.U. Makes a Sudden and Embarrassing U-Turn on
Vaccines
Already criticized for a slow rollout for its 27
members, Brussels retreated on export controls linked to Ireland and Brexit.
Steven
ErlangerMatina Stevis-Gridneff
By Steven
Erlanger and Matina Stevis-Gridneff
Jan. 30,
2021
Updated
11:18 a.m. ET
BRUSSELS —
The European Union early Saturday abruptly reversed an attempt to restrict
vaccine exports from the bloc into Britain via Northern Ireland, the latest
stumble in the continent’s faltering vaccine rollout.
The bloc
had come under harsh criticism on Friday from Britain, Ireland and the World
Health Organization when it announced plans to use emergency measures under the
Brexit deal to block Covid-19 vaccines from being shipped across the Irish
border into Britain.
The
reversal came as the European Commission and its president, Ursula von der
Leyen, were already under fire for the comparatively slow rollout of
vaccinations in the 27 member states, especially compared with Britain and the
United States.
The
Commission announced the restrictions without consulting member states or
Britain, a former member — unusually aggressive behavior that is not typical of
the bloc, said Mujtaba Rahman, the head of Europe for the Eurasia Group, a
political risk consultancy.
“There’s
clearly panic at the highest levels of the Commission, and the issue of the
Northern Ireland agreement has been swept up in this bigger issue of the E.U.’s
poor vaccine performance,” he said.
The drama
unfolded just as the bloc’s plan to vaccinate 70 percent of its adult
population by the summer was unraveling. Already slow in ordering and
delivering the vaccines, the European Union was hit with a devastating blow
when AstraZeneca announced that it would slash vaccine deliveries because of
production problems.
The initial
E.U. plan to limit vaccine exports to non-E.U. countries brought cries of
outrage from both the Republic of Ireland, a member of the European Union, and
Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. Both sides are committed to not
recreating any land border between the two parts of the island of Ireland.
Triggering
the emergency measures in the Brexit agreement so soon after Britain left the
bloc’s authority at the end of 2020 seemed to call into question the European
Union’s sincerity in following through with the deal regarding Ireland — which
was one of the biggest sticking points to reaching the deal. Ireland’s prime
minister, Micheal Martin, immediately raised the issue with Ms. von der Leyen.
Prime
Minister Boris Johnson of Britain spoke to both leaders. And Arlene Foster,
Northern Ireland’s first minister, called the bloc’s move “an incredible act of
hostility.”
Britons who
favored Brexit point to their country’s more rapid vaccination rollout as a
benefit of leaving the bloc and its slower, collective processes.
Tom
Tugendhat, a Conservative member of British Parliament who initially opposed
Brexit but voted reluctantly for the deal, said on Twitter that the signals
from the vaccine dispute were a cause for concern.
“Whatever
your view on Brexit, it is now completely clear how we’re seen by the EU —
we’re out,” he said, and “the good will is sparing.” He called for a policy
that “rebuilds relationships.”
Ms. von der
Leyen and the Commission were quick to back down, insisting that a mistake had
been made and that any vaccine export controls would ensure that the Brexit
agreement, which gave assurances that there would be no new border checks
between Ireland and Northern Ireland, would be “unaffected.” That protocol
essentially treats Northern Ireland as part of the European Union’s regulatory
space.
But it was
clear that the move to bring in export controls was aimed at preventing any
vaccine doses produced within the European Union from being sent into Britain
across the open border on the island of Ireland.
The British
took it as an aggressive act. Mr. Johnson called Ms. von der Leyen and said
afterward that he had “expressed his grave concern about the potential impact.”
The World
Health Organization joined in the criticism of the E.U. export controls, saying
that such measures risked prolonging the pandemic. Its director-general, Dr.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Friday that “vaccine nationalism” could
lead to a “protracted recovery.” Mariangela Simao, the assistant
director-general for access to medicines, on Saturday called the move part of a
“very worrying trend.”
After
talking to Mr. Martin and Mr. Johnson and getting advice from the European
Union ambassador in London, Ms. von der Leyen posted a tweet after midnight
saying that “we agreed on the principle that there should not be restrictions
on the export of vaccines by companies where they are fulfilling contractual
responsibilities.”
The bloc
still intends to introduce export controls that could prevent any vaccines made
in the European Union from being sent to non-E.U. countries, but without
involving Northern Ireland, which in any event gets its vaccines from Britain.
Earlier in
the week, the Commission and Ms. von der Leyen had accused the British-Swedish
company of not living up to its contract. They suggested that AstraZeneca,
which is working with a vaccine developed at the University of Oxford, was
giving Britain preferential treatment and even sending some vaccines made in
the European Union there instead.
AstraZeneca
disputed the charge, and its chief executive officer, Pascal Soriot, insisted
that the contract with the European Union required only “best reasonable
efforts” to meet delivery schedules.
Britain
signed its own contract with the company three months before the European Union
did, Mr. Soriot said, and under that contract, vaccines produced in Britain
must go there first.
Ms. von der
Leyen, who had previously left most of the vaccine dispute to her
commissioners, said on Thursday that the bloc would introduce a temporary
export-control mechanism to block exports of vaccines made in the European
Union — a measure clearly aimed at AstraZeneca, which also manufactures in
Belgium.
Approval to
even use the AstraZeneca vaccine in the European Union came only on Friday. So
the company could hardly be blamed for the existing shortfalls in vaccinations
stemming from earlier Commission decisions to order in bulk for the whole bloc,
which drove down the price of vaccines but delayed orders and deliveries.
Nor did it
help bloc unity when first the German government and then President Emmanuel
Macron of France cast doubt on whether the AstraZeneca vaccine was effective
for people over age 65 — contradicting what the European Medicines Agency had
said when it approved the vaccine for all adults.
For the
German magazine Der Spiegel, no fan of Ms. von der Leyen, the mishandling of
the vaccine rollout is her responsibility. “Europe is facing a vaccine
disaster,” the magazine wrote, which “might ultimately turn out to be the
greatest disaster of her entire political career.”
Steven
Erlanger is the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe, based in Brussels. He
previously reported from London, Paris, Jerusalem, Berlin, Prague, Moscow and
Bangkok. @StevenErlanger
Matina
Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels correspondent for The New York Times, covering
the European Union. She joined The Times after covering East Africa for The
Wall Street Journal for five years. @MatinaStevis
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