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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S vice-president Maroš Šefčovič has said that the Commission has “already responded” to questions about the Article 16 controversy, and said that the EU’s vaccine rollout mistake may have been “trusting vaccine suppliers too much”.
In an interview with EuroNews’ Shona Murray, Šefčovič said that “we apologised for it, and we are sorry” in relation to the proposal to trigger Article 16, said that there was a need to dial down “heated rhetoric” around the problems with carrying out post-Brexit checks in Northern Ireland.
Responding to criticism of the EU’s vaccine rollout, which has been compared to the rollouts in the US and UK and deemed too slow by comparison, he told EuroNews:
“We are also very honest about what we could have done better. Maybe we trusted the vaccine suppliers too much that they would be able to deliver what they actually signed up to the contracts.
“Maybe they had to be, let’s say, more forceful in making sure that all the contracts [that] have been signed would be respected from day one.”
In her address to the European Parliament last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen admitted that the EU’s mistake was being “too confident” that the EU’s vaccine orders from pharma companies would be delivered on time.
“We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production, and perhaps too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time.”
Von der Leyen also argued in favour of the 27-country approach to the vaccine rollout:
“I can’t even imagine if a few big players had rushed to it and the others went empty-handed. In economic terms it would have been nonsense and it would have been I think the end of our community.”
Oireachtas committee
Šefčovič is to appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Union Affairs tomorrow at 10am, via video link, to discuss the mistake made over the proposal to trigger Article 16, which could have meant checks between the six and 26 counties.
Šefčovič and UK Cabinet minister Michael Gove are engaged in talks to try to iron out problems there have been in implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol in the past month and a half.
Šefčovič told RTÉ’s The Week In Politics yesterday that the use of trusted trader schemes, simplifying export health certificates, and extending the grace period for traders were measures being considered to smooth the implementation of the Protocol.
“I believe that we found a very unique solution where Northern Ireland is part of the single market, and at the same time off course it is the part of the internet UK market.
“So I think there is the unique possibility for Northern Ireland to develop new jobs, new growth and to have really, a very, very special place in both in single market and also in the internal UK market.”
Gove has requested these measures, including the extension of the grace period until January 2023, in an open letter to the European Commission.
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“I can’t even imagine if a few big players had rushed to it and the others went empty-handed. In economic terms it would have been nonsense and it would have been I think the end of our community.” Maybe she forgets that at the start of the pandemic, Germany banned the export of PPE to hard-hit Northern Italy. The Germans are also sourcing vaccines directly. So much for EU solidarity.
@Earth Traveller: Biontech is a German company, the German government gave them a $445 million grant to develop the vaccine.
“German biotech firm BioNTech said on Tuesday it had secured almost $450 million in government funding to speed up work on its COVID-19 vaccine candidate and expand its production capacity in Germany.”
They just started production at the new factory in Germany.
“BioNTech plans to produce up to 250 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in Marburg in the first half of 2021.”
https://www.dw.com/en/biontech-starts-vaccine-production-at-new-site-in-germany/a-56524305
Yes …blame the amazing people that created the vaccines….god politicians have no shame…
@David cotter: They aren’t blaming the scientists, but the companies that signed the contract for a certain amount of vaccines and are now in breach of contract for not delivering what was agreed.
@David cotter: Maroš Šefčovič is an EU official, not a politician.
@Earth Traveller: meh….tomato tomato
@David cotter: EU way too slow approving all vaccines and so missed the bus. Buy some off the Russians.
@Joe Johnson: ‘buy some off the Russians’. That deserves an eye roll. I’ll take the rigorous standards set by the EMA, even if that means waiting a few extra weeks. Thanks
@David cotter: Astrazeneca didn’t create the vaccine, the Oxford University team did. Astrazeneca are just manufacturing and shipping it. And they did over promise and under deliver.
Listening to Prof Luke O’Neill today and he seems to figure that the Johnson and Johnson vaccine which is not yet available will in fact prove to be a game changer. It has a very high percentage rate of positivity in testing and will be able to protect people from all variants of Covid. It is also just a single dose. If this is the case would it not be preferable to have a vaccine such as Johnson and Johnson administered to all or will we end up getting more and more vaccines as new variants arise?
@Mary Dunphy: most likely we’ll need another vaccine in the autumn / winter season again. Hopefully the better vaccines will be more readily available then
@Mary Dunphy: not really – the good news in Johnson and Johnson is an additional vaccine which is great – but the reality is the race has started rolling out vaccines to try prevent the virus -and others such as pfizer and Moderna etc got there first – it wouldnt make sense to keep waiting for the next slightly improved version because the efficacy rates for these Mdna vaccines is very very good – they also capable of being modified for variants in future so it makes more sense to do what the world is doing – have a look at how well this current vaccine is working where rolled out like in Israel – pretty amazing results – so the short version is to roll out as many vaccines as possible as quickly as possible -
@Mary Dunphy: It could be Christmas before the EU approves the J and J vaccine, and Easter 2022 before they get delivery.
@Mary Dunphy: while most Covid commentators are negative doom merchants Luke O Neill is overly optimistic so be careful
@Mary Dunphy: been alot of game changer comments from the great and the good since this pandemic stated. We are still at this moment in the poo.
Of course the answer will be more of the same and more centralisation of power. Muppets. I don’t want à Brexit for Ireland but the new Commission are so insuffferable and disshonest that I miss Juncker. Hard to imagine he’d have screwed up as badly as Van der Lyin.
@Aindriú Purfield: We need to go back to what was the EC. This EU thing is a failed experiment.
@Daniel Dunne: oh dear. That same Brexit rhetoric is starting to turn up on this page.
@Daniel Dunne: Failed experiment? What does that even mean? Can you people not throw around buzz words without some explaining? The EU is doing exactly as it’s supposed to as set out in the Treaty of Lisbon.
If it were to work otherwise, that would require treaty change. This requires all EU member states at the negotiation table, long negotiations with thousands of different interests at stake. People complain when the EU do nothing. People complain when the EU do something. They don’t have the same power as a traditional nation state. The EU itself is 27 members states working together.
@Tomo: the EU only reacted when they became aware that 4 member states had formed an alliance to purchase vaccines. They then started to negotiate for the 27 members to secure vaccines. They then, amazingly, signed aspirational contracts with the pharmaceutical companies. You couldn’t make this up.
@Ross McBride: oh dear. Another fanatic blue flag waver trying to not very subtly undermine the democratic decision of a nation state as his beloved unelected EU bureaucrats screwed up.
@Tomo: yeah course it is. What did deGaulle say.. Europe is just France and Germany, the rest are just the trimmings. We saw that during the financial crisis. With the Brits gone watch the power of national veto progressively disappear as ‘ever closer union’ speeds up. As for the Lisbon Treaty.. Shure we will let the Irish keep voting in that till they give us the right result.
The Czechs are going to buy some extra deliveries from Astra Zeneca and it is obvious that Polands 7 percent rate compared to the Czech 4 percent rate means the Poles also had a recent extra stash too. The EUs policies created the exact situation they didn’t want.
Wonder if any bookies are taking bets on who the EU commission is going to blame next
That’s one thing politician’s are good at, saying sorry and blaming everyone else
They prioritised penny pinching over getting a contract signed and we suffered as a result. How much will that attempt to save money cost in the long run.
Follow the money
The mistake was trusting the EU commission to do their job. There not up to it.
Oh no the eu politicians are donkeys it hasn’t even got to our money grabbing donkeys yet we’re all doomed!!
And yes I had to put extra letters in those two words to dodge the poxy filters lol
https://youtu.be/1zo_fA6avyg Article 16, not that easy to trigger and they can be countermeasures available if it is triggered
have your say