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Welcome to the latest phase of the coronavirus in the EU: pandemic pandemonium.
As EU heads of state or government prepared to meet Thursday for a virtual summit, the European Commission has rolled out plans for a draconian mechanism to curb vaccine exports. But officials were quick to admit that it would do almost nothing immediately, if ever, to solve the EU’s biggest problem: an acute shortage of doses to inoculate people.
In an effort to ease tensions between Brussels and London, the EU and the UK issued a vague joint statement on Wednesday evening proclaiming that they would work together to increase stocks of vaccines. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson still threatened retaliation for possible export restrictions, and EU officials were still riddled with UK vaccine makers not shipping doses overseas.
The lack of details in the joint statement only underscored the lack of good options for political leaders in a situation where the demand for vaccines is currently far greater than existing manufacturing capabilities.
“We are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes EU-UK cooperation even more important,” the statement read. “We discussed what else we can do to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship between the UK and the EU on COVID-19. Given our interdependence, we are working on specific steps we can take – in the short, medium and long term. term – to create a win-win situation and expand the vaccine offering for all our citizens. “
And in case citizens were concerned that the channels of communication across the Channel were breaking, the statement ended with the words, “We will continue our discussions.”
Chaos contamination
Meanwhile, EU countries were shocked at various controversies over lockdown measures or vaccine supplies, and faced the prospect of yet another holiday season – Easter, now – with large swaths of the economy still shut down.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel made a stunning plea for forgiveness from citizens and abruptly turned back to plans for a five-day Easter lockdown that would have closed all stores from April 1 to April 5. Merkel said, taking full responsibility. But at the same time, she reiterated that Germany was in the throes of a third wave of infections.
In Belgium, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced an “Easter break”, re-imposing some tougher containment measures, including the closure of schools and businesses that provide close contact with services, such as hairdressers and nail salons.
And in Italy, the fallout continued during a weekend attack on a vaccine factory by military police, apparently acting on behalf of the EU’s representative for vaccine production, Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. The plant is owned by Catalent, a subcontractor who provides filling and finishing work for AstraZeneca, the vaccine maker who has enraged the Commission over production shortages of tens of millions of doses.
Breton apparently believed that some of the factory’s production numbers were wrong. Police found 29 million doses waiting to be sent to Belgium. AstraZeneca issued a statement describing the situation as routine, but the large amount seemed to respond to the EU’s concerns in recent days that companies could “store” doses.
The company denied allegations of stockpiling, saying that of the stockpile, 13 million doses were destined for the COVAX pool for developing countries and the rest for Europe.
Overall, the incident has only added to the growing sense of chaos and the deepening of the crisis.
Politicians and public health officials had long warned that things would get worse this spring before they got better. But somehow, leaders seemed to have ignored – or forgotten – their own guidelines while distorting their messages, screwing up policy decisions, and generally making citizens feel that things were getting out of hand.
In his invitation letter to the summit sent to heads of state or government on Tuesday, European Council President Charles Michel emphasized the central role of the vaccine problem at the leaders’ meeting.
“As far as COVID is concerned, our top priority is to accelerate vaccination campaigns across the EU,” he wrote. “To this end, ongoing work to boost vaccine production, increase vaccine delivery and ensure greater transparency and predictability of delivery should be intensified.”
Export Restrictions
Under tremendous pressure to live up to that hope, the Commission on Wednesday unveiled the pumped-up export control program that it believes should help secure more vaccines. “While our member states are facing the third wave of the pandemic and not every company is honoring its contract,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Wednesday. “We need to ensure timely and adequate delivery of vaccines to EU citizens. Every day counts.”
But more dubious trade officials among her said the mechanism would not allow the EU to claim vaccines. Two officials even said it was a measure the EU would rather never use.
On paper, the new measures would now allow the Commission to block exports of vaccines to countries with higher vaccination coverage and which do not correspond to EU exports. “These are necessary to achieve our goal of ensuring timely access to COVID-19 vaccines for EU citizens,” said Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis.
But Dombrovskis admitted that the scheme could not force companies to give those blocked vaccines to EU countries. “It’s an export licensing system, it doesn’t prescribe what companies should do with the doses in question,” he said.
In a briefing to reporters, a senior EU official said: “We cannot seize any of these doses that have not been granted for export, neither at European Union level nor at Member State level … [blocked] … Of course remains the property of the company and the company must then see what to do with it. “
A trade diplomat said this meant that a vaccine manufacturer could simply export those blocked doses to another country that doesn’t meet the criteria for restrictions.
But another senior EU official said the Commission hoped that by threatening to block exports, it would induce companies to pre-load vaccine shipments to EU countries and delay some of their shipments to countries with higher vaccination coverage.
Recognizing that officials had few options, Germany urged the Commission to purchase doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, which has not yet been approved for use in the EU. Some officials, including von der Leyen, had previously expressed public doubts about the vaccine, wondering why Russia wanted to ship so much of it abroad, even though many of its citizens did not appear to have been vaccinated.
Biden beams in
A third senior EU official said it would be difficult for heads of state or government to discuss the Commission’s proposal at Thursday’s summit, as it was unveiled just a day before the meeting. But it seemed impossible that national leaders would not take the opportunity to discuss all the ways to alleviate the vaccine shortage.
Despite mounting political pressure domestically, leaders are divided on the proposed export restrictions. France, Germany and Italy proved to be strong supporters of at the very least threatening the tougher export measures. But Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and other countries have been reluctant to get tougher, citing possible threats of retaliation and disruption to supply chains, diplomats said Wednesday.
There was also an ongoing discussion among EU diplomats on Wednesday about invoking an emergency provision of the EU treaties, known as Article 122, that would allow the seizure of vaccine doses or other urgent measures. Such a move could have serious legal ramifications and diplomats said it was unclear whether it was feasible.
But given the public frustration, some leaders clearly want to be more proactive. For example, in an opinion piece published by POLITICO, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the EU to use any legal instrument to increase production, including a mechanism of ‘compulsory licensing’ that he said would enable the EU to effectively patent to seize. rights and engage other manufacturers.
And EU countries are also divided on another proposal – to create a digital vaccine certificate that could potentially help revitalize travel. The Commission has worked hard to develop the concept, and supporters of the idea have insisted that it has general support among capitals. But some countries are resistant due to data privacy concerns and the need to develop more reliable technology to serve as an interoperable platform.
Amid the fear of vaccine stocks, leaders will be welcoming a star guest. US President Joe Biden will attend the European Council video conference on Thursday evening at the invitation of Michel, but it was unclear whether Michel intended to plead directly with the US President to remove any obstacles to the shipment of vaccines from the US .
Biden will be a more welcome sight than his White House predecessor Donald Trump, but it seemed unlikely he would offer to get them out of their vaccination hole. This week, it was Poland, not the US, who said it would deliver vaccines to all employees at NATO headquarters.
Jacopo Barigazzi, Maïa de La Baume, Anna Isaac and Hans von der Burchard contributed to the reporting.
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