MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2021) The increasing problems with the vaccination campaign Europe is facing and the UK's apparent success in forestalling supply disruptions may be the clearest proof positive yet of UK's go-it-alone stance.
EU officials were alarmed after AstraZeneca announced that the number of vaccine doses it would be able to deliver to the bloc in the first quarter of 2021 would be 60 percent lower than the planned 400 million.
AstraZeneca had to reduce the volume of supplies due to technical production issues at its Seneffe factory in Belgium. At the same time, the company continues to deliver massive quantities of the vaccine doses produced at its two UK factories, to the United Kingdom.
For many observers, it is quite normal since London ordered the vaccine doses from AstraZeneca in September, three months earlier than the EU, and the first contract has precedence over the second. But the EU refuses to consider the issue from that point of view.
In a bid to settle the issue, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on Monday held phone talks with the AstraZeneca chief, Pascal Soriot. According to European sources, the conversation was very heated, with Soriot categorically rejecting the version of his firm's obligations as described by von der Leyen.
"She has made it very clear that she expects AstraZeneca to honor the contracts and conditions set out in the pre-order agreement. Production problems may arise, but we expect the company to find solutions. The European Union had invested significant amounts in laboratories, precisely to ensure that production ramps up before approval for marketing," a commission spokesperson said.
Following the talks, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides on Monday said that Brussels would now insist on being notified of any exports of vaccines from EU sites, including that produced by Pfizer � the UK and to some extent, the US rely on European laboratories for supplies. Kyriakides hinted at the possibility of export bans.
In response, the president of AstraZeneca said that it was ridiculous to insinuate that the firm favored exports to other customers than the European Union, adding that the firm has no obligation to deliver under contract in case of production difficulties. They simply "promised to do their best" in a "best-effort agreement" to respect the timetable.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has not yet greenlighted the AstraZeneca vaccine, which could come on Friday at the earliest. In contrast, health authorities in UK gave the green light in early December.
BELGIAN-EUROPEAN INVESTIGATION TEAM AT PRODUCTION FACTORY
On Wednesday morning, a team of experts from the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products of Belgium (FAMHP), accompanied by Dutch, Italian and Spanish specialists, visited AstraZeneca's production plant at Seneffe, west of Brussels, for a thorough inspection of the site. While experts have detected production problems on the site, they have been unwilling to make their findings known. According to the head office of AstraZeneca in Groot-Bijgaarden near Brussels, a press release will be issued after the experts submit the result of their inquiry at Seneffe.
The experts are set "to make sure that the delay in the delivery of vaccines was indeed due to a production problem on the Belgian site. The inspectors' visit to the factory was made in collaboration with other countries, in order to ensure full transparency and objectivity," the Belgian prime minister's office said.
ALL-OUT WAR BETWEEN EU AND ASTRAZENECA
With the vaccine deliveries being delayed, the scramble for vaccine is fast turning into a vaccine arms race, as borne out by the squabble between the European Commission with AstraZeneca on the one hand and with the United Kingdom on the other.
While countries like Russia and China have developed their own vaccines, many countries struggling to develop theirs have had a rude awakening with vaccine availability fast becoming a political issue as powerful nations seek to make it a weapon of influence in international relations. Against this background, the EU entrusted countries outside its sphere of influence with the production of its vaccines. With the main AstraZeneca factories in the UK, Brexit has added to its headaches.
The European Commission insisted on negotiating the supply contracts jointly on behalf of the member states, which is a major political advance, but it fell behind in doing so. Europe is not the first in terms of vaccinated people, it is preceded by Israel (43.22 percent are vaccinated figures), the UK (10.38 percent), the US (6.60 percent), as well as Russia and China. Europe, despite moving forward as a whole, and in spite of its padded pockets and participation in various research and development projects, is yet to achieves vaccine sovereignty, production-wise.
The vaccine controversy has left Europe grappling with its position as a second-class power, at least as a power that partly depends on the goodwill of others.
Given that a large part of the vaccines produced for the world is manufactured in Europe, including at plants in Belgium, the European Commission is probing into reasons for delay in supplies.
The commission has demanded that AstraZeneca should deliver the doses it negotiated for the first quarter, albeit from factories located in the UK � a requirement that will never be accepted by London, which is putting pressure on its national champion not to give in to the European Union.
Commenting on the European Commission's position in the row with the vaccine producer, the EU health commissioner said on Thursday that everything boils down to the "priority argument," without giving any details.
"The EU rejects the logic of first come first served [the UK signed the deal with the company before the EU]. This might work at the neighboring butcher's but not in our contract and not in our advance purchase order," Kyriakides said.
According to the commissioner, there is neither a priority clause in the advance purchase order nor a hierarchy of the production plants.
"The EU intends to defend the integrity of its investment and of the taxpayers' money invested. We expect true collaboration from AstraZeneca," she concluded.
The situation was further complicated by media reports alleging that the facilities in the UK are expected to be operational for the EU since the bloc's funds went into upgrading these plants. This sets the stage for a difficult meeting with the UK-Swedish company.
Commenting on the issue, Thierry Mariani, a French member of the European Parliament, has condemned those praising the EU's coordinated efforts to ensure the vaccine deliveries.
"I urge Europhiles across the continent to drop the 'propaganda' hailing the success of the coordinated efforts of the bloc. In view of the delivery problems revealed by the delays of Pfizer, and above all the squabble between the European Commission and AstraZeneca, we regret the opacity of the contracts of the EU with industry. We cannot even consult these contracts as members of parliament! The European Commission has ordered too little, has paid for important aids to research and has not negotiated any security of contracts with industry," Mariani told Sputnik.
According to the lawmaker, the current situation proves that the European model of global free trade is mistaken. While 1 million French citizens have received the first shot of the vaccine, the UK has vaccinated 5.8 million, immunizing 400,000 people every day.
"I also deeply regret the EU's reluctance to consider the approval of non-western vaccines. Hungary has intelligently decided to buy Russian vaccines too. Serbia has positioned itself well, by ordering vaccines from Russia too, since Europe cannot deliver the expected quantities, even to its own member states. Serbia is only an accession country, so they can wait for a long time before getting anything from Europe," the politician said.
Further elaborating on the situation in Serbia, he said that the country � which has not received any supplies from the EU yet, has managed to vaccinate 3.77 percent of its population with the Russian vaccine, showing better results than Denmark (3.62 percent are vaccinated) or Germany (2.13 percent).
The lawmaker concluded that Europe has lost its vaccine sovereignty.
