by Alexandra Brzozowski
What European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as ‘Europe’s moment’ in December, referring to COVID-19 vaccine deals, could very well go down as ‘Europe’s mess’ in January.
EU officials know that a lot is at stake if they don’t resolve the growing vaccine problem.
First, the EU was not able to support its near neighbourhood and potential future members in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership in its efforts to obtain affordable and fair access to the COVID-19 vaccines.
Instead, these countries are now turning to Russia and China, who have promptly offered their own vaccines.
And now, it turns out, the bloc is not able to sort out the vaccine mess inside its own borders.
The EU’s very public difficulty in securing COVID-19 vaccines and the public dispute between the Commission and AstraZeneca – which has, in turn, created another row between the Commission and the UK – have resulted in a significant loss of public trust. The EU has failed in its prime obligation, to protect its citizens.
And the secrecy surrounding the EU’s vaccine deals is only one contributing aspect of it.
At the same time, EU coherence is crumbling, too: Hungary has already moved to approve Russian and Chinese shots, unilaterally, and all the signs suggest that the Czechs may very soon follow suit, as Prime Minister Andrej Babis said he could indeed do something similar.
Leaving aside the internal optics, what kind of geopolitical message does this mess project in terms of the EU’s ambitions of being a ‘strategically autonomous and major global player’?
Thursday’s announcement that EU countries will be able to block vaccine exports also has the ugly side-effect that global partners might lose trust in Europe.
This could be the case with Canada, for example, which is getting its supply of more than 100 million doses of the vaccine from Europe because the United States has imposed its own restrictions.
As so often, protectionism is rarely the right way to remain a credible global partner.
And then there’s also the Brexit-related lesson for foreign spectators: The UK, which seems to have no issues with the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, has already approved it for all age groups.
While UK businesses may be struggling with the new customs and tax requirements of trading with the EU, the country does appear to be reaping its first Brexit dividend with its relatively efficient vaccination programme.
After having promised that it would take responsibility for obtaining sufficient doses to cover the EU27, the European Commission has been caught short. National governments across the EU have every justification to rush and buy their own supplies.
In the meantime, von der Leyen and Co. should think about the number of times they had used the word ‘strategic autonomy’ in the past few months – and whether they will be ashamed the next time they do.
*first published in: www.euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer
