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Jean-Claude Juncker criticises EU over Covid vaccine spat with UK
Former European commission chief also says bloc has been too cautious in its procurement
The EU has been overly cautious and budget conscious over Covid vaccines and should step back from waging a “stupid vaccine war” with Britain, the former European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said.
Juncker, who was replaced by Ursula von der Leyen in 2019, compared the EU’s approach to vaccination unfavourably with that of Britain where the rollout has been speedier.
He also said he was “not a fan” of the commission’s export authorisation mechanism under which officials have been empowered to prohibit shipments.
“This could create major reputation damage to the European Union, who used to be the world’s free trade champion,” Juncker told the BBC’s HARDtalk programme. “And so I don’t think that this is the right way to do it.
“I do think that we have to pull back from a vaccine war. I think that there is room for dialogue, for discussions, for developing arguments on both sides of the Channel. Nobody in Britain, nobody in Europe understands why we are witnessing, according to the news, a stupid vaccine war … We are not in war, and we are not enemies. We are allies.”
The commission updated its export authorisation mechanism on Wednesday to allow officials to block shipments to countries with a high level of vaccination coverage or those that restrict exports through law or in their contracts with suppliers.
The UK does not ban the export of vaccines, but the government signed a contract with AstraZeneca that obliges the Anglo-Swedish company to deliver doses produced in Oxford and Staffordshire to Britain first.
The UK also appears to fall foul of the EU’s new criteria on vaccination coverage, with 45 jabs administered per 100 residents, compared with 13 per 100 on average across the 27 member states.
The commission’s regulation, in force since January, previously only took into account whether a supplier was fulfilling its contract with the EU.
Juncker said he would prefer the commission to opt for dialogue over threats, and that the commission and the EU member states had made a major mistake in their approach to the vaccine rollout.
“I would like the member states and the commission to speed up the efforts to provide vaccines for each and every one in the European Union,” he said. “Britain is in advance for different reasons, because Britain took the decision to have an emergency decision-based approach whereas the European Union, the commission and the member of states, were more budget conscious … We were too cautious.”
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, told the Greek television channel ERT that he believed the EU had been too tentative in procuring and distributing vaccines.
“Everybody, all the experts said: Never in the history of mankind was a vaccine developed in less than a year. We didn’t shoot for the stars. That should be a lesson for all of us. We were wrong to lack ambition, to lack the madness, I would say, to say: It’s possible, let’s do it,” he said
“We didn’t think it would happen that quickly... 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. We thought the vaccines would take time to take off.”
To ensure that each member state started administering vaccines at the same time, the commission and the EU capitals opted to seek approval for them through the European Medicines Agency, a slower route than those available to national regulators.
An EU ban on vaccine exports would make its wretched rollout take longer still | Leo Cendrowicz
Asked whether Von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, should resign, Juncker said he did not believe that would be appropriate.
“These are not failures of the commission. These are failures of the member states in total and so I don’t think that the getting rid of Mrs Von der Leyen would be helpful,” he said. “On the contrary it would prolong delays we are responsible for.
“It is too easy to put all the responsibility on the shoulders of the commission and Mrs Von der Leyen. All the member states are responsible given the bureaucratic approach some member states had.”
The EU’s procurement of vaccines was also held up for more than two months last year by a number of member states declining to take their full share because of the risk they might have been spending money on a product that could have proved ineffective.
The commission was further concerned during its negotiations with suppliers about costs and avoiding liability if the vaccines were found to be dangerous to health.
Juncker said the commission had been “too budget conscious, which is quite normal because in normal times, the commission, as was always the case, is accused of spreading money away.
“Others were not because they wanted to fight against the pandemic developments which the European Union did not do to the full extent,” he said. “That was a major mistake which should not have happened, but it happened.”
On the EU-UK spat over trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, Juncker said he would prefer the commission did not take the UK through the courts over its unilateral decision to extend grace periods on checks. “I don’t understand this temptation to fight against Britain, and the British temptation to fight against the EU,” he said. “Let’s discuss among adult people. What is the image we’re giving?”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...criticises-eu-over-covid-vaccine-spat-with-uk
Former European commission chief also says bloc has been too cautious in its procurement
The EU has been overly cautious and budget conscious over Covid vaccines and should step back from waging a “stupid vaccine war” with Britain, the former European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has said.
Juncker, who was replaced by Ursula von der Leyen in 2019, compared the EU’s approach to vaccination unfavourably with that of Britain where the rollout has been speedier.
He also said he was “not a fan” of the commission’s export authorisation mechanism under which officials have been empowered to prohibit shipments.
“This could create major reputation damage to the European Union, who used to be the world’s free trade champion,” Juncker told the BBC’s HARDtalk programme. “And so I don’t think that this is the right way to do it.
“I do think that we have to pull back from a vaccine war. I think that there is room for dialogue, for discussions, for developing arguments on both sides of the Channel. Nobody in Britain, nobody in Europe understands why we are witnessing, according to the news, a stupid vaccine war … We are not in war, and we are not enemies. We are allies.”
The commission updated its export authorisation mechanism on Wednesday to allow officials to block shipments to countries with a high level of vaccination coverage or those that restrict exports through law or in their contracts with suppliers.
The UK does not ban the export of vaccines, but the government signed a contract with AstraZeneca that obliges the Anglo-Swedish company to deliver doses produced in Oxford and Staffordshire to Britain first.
The UK also appears to fall foul of the EU’s new criteria on vaccination coverage, with 45 jabs administered per 100 residents, compared with 13 per 100 on average across the 27 member states.
The commission’s regulation, in force since January, previously only took into account whether a supplier was fulfilling its contract with the EU.
Juncker said he would prefer the commission to opt for dialogue over threats, and that the commission and the EU member states had made a major mistake in their approach to the vaccine rollout.
“I would like the member states and the commission to speed up the efforts to provide vaccines for each and every one in the European Union,” he said. “Britain is in advance for different reasons, because Britain took the decision to have an emergency decision-based approach whereas the European Union, the commission and the member of states, were more budget conscious … We were too cautious.”
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, told the Greek television channel ERT that he believed the EU had been too tentative in procuring and distributing vaccines.
“Everybody, all the experts said: Never in the history of mankind was a vaccine developed in less than a year. We didn’t shoot for the stars. That should be a lesson for all of us. We were wrong to lack ambition, to lack the madness, I would say, to say: It’s possible, let’s do it,” he said
“We didn’t think it would happen that quickly... 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. We thought the vaccines would take time to take off.”
To ensure that each member state started administering vaccines at the same time, the commission and the EU capitals opted to seek approval for them through the European Medicines Agency, a slower route than those available to national regulators.
An EU ban on vaccine exports would make its wretched rollout take longer still | Leo Cendrowicz
Asked whether Von der Leyen, a former German defence minister, should resign, Juncker said he did not believe that would be appropriate.
“These are not failures of the commission. These are failures of the member states in total and so I don’t think that the getting rid of Mrs Von der Leyen would be helpful,” he said. “On the contrary it would prolong delays we are responsible for.
“It is too easy to put all the responsibility on the shoulders of the commission and Mrs Von der Leyen. All the member states are responsible given the bureaucratic approach some member states had.”
The EU’s procurement of vaccines was also held up for more than two months last year by a number of member states declining to take their full share because of the risk they might have been spending money on a product that could have proved ineffective.
The commission was further concerned during its negotiations with suppliers about costs and avoiding liability if the vaccines were found to be dangerous to health.
Juncker said the commission had been “too budget conscious, which is quite normal because in normal times, the commission, as was always the case, is accused of spreading money away.
“Others were not because they wanted to fight against the pandemic developments which the European Union did not do to the full extent,” he said. “That was a major mistake which should not have happened, but it happened.”
On the EU-UK spat over trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, Juncker said he would prefer the commission did not take the UK through the courts over its unilateral decision to extend grace periods on checks. “I don’t understand this temptation to fight against Britain, and the British temptation to fight against the EU,” he said. “Let’s discuss among adult people. What is the image we’re giving?”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...criticises-eu-over-covid-vaccine-spat-with-uk
