BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th March, 2021) London and Brussels are facing off against each other ever since the UK-Swedish AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company announced in January that the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses it would deliver to the European Union in the first quarter of 2021 would be 60 percent lower than the planned 400 million.
AstraZeneca had to reduce the volume of supplies to the EU due to technical production issues at its Seneffe factory in Belgium, although it continued to deliver massive quantities of the vaccine doses produced at its two UK factories, to the United Kingdom.
In a bid to settle the issue, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen directly addressed AstraZeneca chief, Pascal Soriot, who in turn categorically rejected the version of his firm's obligations as described by von der Leyen. Following the talks, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said that Brussels would insist on being notified of any exports of vaccines from EU sites, including those produced by Pfizer.
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 had no obligation to deliver under contract in case of production difficulties.
The UK-EU row eventually intensified in the months that followed, leading to some reckless decisions, including Brussels temporarily triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol that, in effect, established a hard border on the island of Ireland. The decision was soon reversed.
The EU is now competing with the United Kingdom and other countries in order to get vaccine doses first, with each side trying to keep the production on its soil in a bid to secure doses for its own population. At the same time, despite the principle of leading a single policy and the official motto "ordering together, we are stronger," many EU member states, including Austria, Hungary, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, are trying to get vaccines some other way, turning to Russia, China, or both.
Last week, The Times reported that London and Brussels were close to signing a COVID-19 vaccine deal, which would put en and to the months-long standoff, after both the EU and the UK said they were working to "ensure a reciprocally beneficial relationship between the UK and EU on COVID-19."
IT IS NEVER DARKER THAN JUST BEFORE THE SUN COMES UP
According to Marc Van Ranst, a virologist and professor at the KU Leuven university in Belgium, who is also a member of the health experts panel consulted by the government, there are some indicators that the UK-EU spat over the vaccines is coming to an end.
"No one wants war in this conflict between the European Commission and Britain. We will find a compromise very quickly, I'm sure. ... The British want to show they can do better on their own than in the European Union, and the Europeans say they refuse to see Britain take advantage of the situation. Fortunately, this is the last stage before vaccination takes off in Europe," Ranst told Sputnik.
The expert added that once Europe receives Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April, the deliveries would significantly increase and the immunization drive would skyrocket.
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, as noted by Ranst, could also be produced in the EU after its authorization.
"There is a delay in the ignition, but we will have too many vaccines at the end of the campaign this fall ... We're nearly out of the tunnel," the KU Leuven professor noted.
COVID-19 VARIANTS AS DRIVING FORCE BEHIND VACCINATION CAMPAIGN
The emergence of mutated variants of the coronavirus could make some of the vaccines ineffective and therefore Europe's existing immunization campaign would become obsolete, Jean-Luc Gala, a virologist at Belgium's UCLouvain University, told Sputnik.
"The South African variant already partly bypasses the immunity provided by vaccines, this is more the case for the AstraZeneca vaccine than for the Pfizer vaccine, for example. The danger is therefore real and the European Commission may not have perceived the urgency of the vaccination campaign quickly enough. ... We must move as quickly as possible in this race," Gala said.
According to the virologist, with the arrival of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Europe, as well as with the approval of the Russian and Chinese jabs, herd immunity in the bloc could be achieved in the fall, provided that COVID-19 does not radically mutate by then.
