'The EU cocked up big time': Desperate Brussels bullies are ridiculed after axing 'Trumpian' plan to stop Covid vaccine entering the UK by introducing Northern Ireland border controls - but they WILL push export ban that could hit 3.5m doses
- Move would have meant border controls between Ireland and Northern Ireland - essentially a 'hard border'
- Northern Ireland's Arlene Foster called it 'incredible act of hostility' while Boris Johnson had 'grave concerns'
- But the EU has now backed down over the proposals and Brussels says they will no longer be put into place
- Today EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier called for vaccine co-operation between Brussels and the UK
- Today former Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith called the move an 'almost Trumpian act'
- Europe has introduced new controls that give it powers to block vaccines being exported from the continent The EU was accused of 'cocking up big time' last night after announcing controls to stop vaccine exports reaching the UK through Northern Ireland - only to abruptly backtrack following widespread condemnation.
Politicians in London, Dublin and Belfast rounded on Brussels for unilaterally overriding part of the Brexit deal to effectively create a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Anger over the move forced a humbling late night U-turn from the European Commission, which first triggered Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol amid a row with AstraZeneca over slow supplies of its jab to the bloc.While Britain has already inoculated 11 per cent of its population, the rollout on the Continent has been blighted by supply issues and the EU has demanded UK doses are instead diverted to the bloc.
French President Emmanuel Macron poured petrol on the rift yesterday when he baselessly claimed there was no evidence the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot worked in over-65s, despite it gaining approval from the EU regulator.
Today former Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith said the EU's now-axed move to halt the free flow of goods on vaccine exports on the island of Ireland with scant awareness of the sensitivities was an 'almost Trumpian act'.
The Tory MP added: 'The EU cocked up big time last night, but we all need to work in the interest of preserving Northern Ireland. It is not just a backdoor for goods going to Britain, it is a very sensitive place and we have a duty between the EU and UK to ensure there is no hard border.'
His remarks echoed the fury expressed by leaders yesterday on both sides of the Irish sea, who were up in arms after being blindsided by Brussels.
Ireland's Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he had raised objections to EU leaders and Boris Johnson said he had 'grave concerns'.
Stormont's first minister Arlene Foster called the move an 'incredible act of hostility' and this morning said the rift emanated from the 'EU's vaccine embarrassment and mismanagement'.
Michel Barnier, who was the EU's chief Brexit negotiator in the trade deal struck only 29 days ago, today tried to cool tensions and appealed for 'cooperation'.
EU sources admitted invoking Article 16 was a 'misjudgment', but the Commission made clear it would still press ahead with plans for wider export controls that could disrupt UK supplies of 3.5million Pfizer jabs, which are made in Belgium.
As leaders were left reeling from the EU's incendiary move:
- An EU bid to pressure AstraZeneca into diverting vaccine supplies from the UK backfired after lawyers said there was no contractual reason to do so;
- European regulators finally gave approval for the firm's vaccine, a month after it won the green light in the UK;
- The Croatian prime minister appeared to accuse the UK of 'vaccine hijacking' by 'offering more money' for doses;
- France's Emmanuel Macron gave an incendiary interview in which he wrongly claimed the AstraZeneca vaccine was 'quasi-ineffective' in older people;
- The UK vaccination programme powered ahead, with 15 per cent of adults having now received their dose – roughly seven times the figure in the EU;
- A one-shot vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson cleared its penultimate hurdle, with the UK in line for 30million doses;
- France announced it was closing its borders to non-EU countries except for 'essential' travel.
The move has been slammed by Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster (pictured), who tonight accused the EU of an 'incredible act of hostility'
The UK has streaked ahead of Europe in terms of the number of vaccines administered, and has now jabbed more than 7million people compared to Germany's 2million
In a late-night statement, the Commission said: 'To tackle the current lack of transparency of vaccine exports outside the EU, the Commission is putting in place a measure requiring that such exports are subject to an authorisation by Member States.
'In the process of finalisation of this measure, the Commission will ensure that the Ireland / Northern Ireland Protocol is unaffected. The Commission is not triggering the safeguard clause.
'Should transits of vaccines and active substances toward third countries be abused to circumvent the effects of the authorisation system, the EU will consider using all the instruments at its disposal.
'In the process of finalising the document, the commission will also be fine-tuning the decision-making process under the implementing regulation.'
Mr Smith, who as Northern Ireland Secretary brokered a power-sharing arrangement in Stormont, said the EU's move offered no understanding of the delicate political landscape of the island of Ireland.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today: 'Years have been spent trying to ensure goods will flow freely and there will be no hard border and last night the EU pulled the emergency cord without following any of the process that are in the protocol if one side wants to suspend it.
'And they did that, in my view, without anywhere near the understanding of the Good Friday Agreement, of the sensitivity of the situation in Northern Ireland, and it was an almost Trumpian act.'
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the EU U-turn was 'welcome' but added 'lessons should be learned'.
In a statement on Twitter, he said: 'Welcome news, but lessons should be learned; the Protocol is not something to be tampered with lightly, it's an essential, hard won compromise, protecting peace & trade for many.'
The EU's reversal came after Brussels had earlier rode roughshod over the Brexit agreement by imposing controls on the export of jabs to this country, including Northern Ireland.
The bloc unilaterally invoked emergency powers in the withdrawal deal to stop Northern Ireland being used as a 'back door' for the export of jabs into the rest of the UK.
Westminster and Dublin were in lockstep last night with their condemnation. A Number 10 spokesperson last night said Mr Johnson had spoken to Mr Martin and expressed his 'concern' about the EU's power-play.
Mr Johnson had demanded that the EU 'urgently clarify its intentions' and 'what steps it plans to take to ensure its own commitments with regards to Northern Ireland are fully honoured'.
A No 10 spokesman added: 'The UK has legally-binding agreements with vaccine suppliers and it would not expect the EU, as a friend and ally, to do anything to disrupt the fulfilment of these contracts.'
Brussels had triggered the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol just 29 days after the UK and EU struck the post-Brexit trade deal when Britain left the transition period.
The EU's chief negotiator in that agreement, Mr Barnier, today called for 'co-operation' between Brussels and the UK over the supply of vaccines across Europe.
Mr Barnier told The Times: 'We are facing an extraordinarily serious crisis, which is creating a lot of suffering, which is causing a lot of deaths in the UK, in France, in Germany, everywhere.
'And I believe we must face this crisis with responsibility, certainly not with the spirit of oneupmanship or unhealthy competition. I recommend preserving the spirit of co-operation between us.'
It comes after the EU's vaccine war entered a dangerous new phase last night as the bloc introduced rules that will allow it to block life-saving jabs getting to Britain and European politicians accused the UK of 'hijacking' doses.
The new controls, which will come into effect on Saturday and last until March, allow the EU to keep track of all vaccines produced on the continent and block exports to certain countries - including the UK, which is expecting to take delivery of another 3.5million Pfizer BioNTech jabs from Belgium in the coming weeks.
The rules also back-date to three months ago, giving Brussels the ability to snoop on past vaccine shipments after Brussels accused AstraZeneca of sending doses meant for Europe to Britain.
Health minister Stella Kyriakides insisted that the 'transparency mechanism' is not intended to target any country, even as Croatia's PM branded the UK 'hijackers' while the EU's justice commissioner said Britain had started a 'war'.
In a strongly-worded statement (pictured) tonight, a furious Ms Foster said: 'This is an incredible act of hostility. The European Union has once again shown it is prepared to use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the most despicable manner - over the provision of a vaccine which is designed to save lives.'Last night, Lord Ricketts, a former UK ambassador to France, accused Brussels of 'escalating recklessly in an attempt to get more doses [of the vaccine] from the UK'. He added: 'The EU is all at sea on this.'
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby tweeted: 'The European Union was originally inspired by Christian social teaching – at the heart of which is solidarity.
'Seeking to control the export of vaccines undercuts the EU's basic ethics. They need to work together with others.'
The World Health Organisation also said the export ban was a 'very worrying trend'.
The bloc yesterday confirmed plans to require vaccine manufacturers to gain approval before exporting batches from the Continent. Dozens of countries were exempted from the measures, including Switzerland. But the UK was included, in a move which could affect supplies here.
The UK is expected to receive 3.5million doses of the Pfizer vaccine from its factory in Belgium. The EU's late decision to include Northern Ireland in the restrictions caught London by surprise – and appeared to underline the determination of Brussels to restrict exports.
In a statement, the Commission claimed it was justified to avoid 'serious societal difficulties due to a lack of supply threatening to disturb the orderly implementation of the vaccination campaigns in the member states'.
Commission officials refused to rule out a plan that could lead to their taking control of vaccine production plants but a source said no plan was 'in action' at present.
Brussels has been under growing pressure from member states over its sluggish vaccine programme, which has seen inoculations fall far behind the UK.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen faced personal scrutiny over her handling of the situation.
'Vaccination is our only way out of the crisis, it has to be a leader's responsibility. I'm really stunned by how carelessly [she] has looked after the start of the vaccination over the past few months,' Carsten Schneider of the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD) told the Daily Telegraph.
In France, Macron also appeared to pull support for the EU's hard-line vaccine policy, saying jab exports should be 'controlled, not blocked or banned.'
Speaking at the Elysée, the French president said: 'Vaccine exports should be controlled, not blocked or banned, which would make no sense because we are also dependent on non-European production.
'It should be controlled because there is questionable behaviour and we will be receiving fewer deliveries that do not honour the contractual engagements agreed.'
The EU was thrown into a tailspin this week after AstraZeneca warned production problems in Belgium meant supplies would be cut by two thirds in the first quarter of this year.
The Commission has piled pressure on the firm to divert supplies from its UK factories. In an extraordinary move, Ms von der Leyen yesterday published the contract with British-based AstraZeneca, but lawyers said it would not help the Commission's case.
While European ministers have publicly insisted that they are entitled to jabs under the terms of the AstraZeneca contract, Steven Barrett - a respected commercial lawyer with the Radcliffe Chambers - told MailOnline that it actually shows the opposite.
'The EU's public position is legally unsustainable, and they have made public comments that are demonstrably wrong,' he said.
Pulling apart the EU contract, Mr Barrett pointed to section 5.1 as the most damning, saying that it 'clearly shows' the company is only under a 'Best Reasonable Effort' clause to supply the EU - as boss Pascal Soriot has stated.
While section 5.4 does state that factories in the UK are considered to be part of the EU under the terms of the contract, he called this 'a distraction' that 'is not relevant to the EU's point'.
'This is actually a mildly embarrassing climbdown from the EU, who have a rule that all vaccines used in the EU have to be made in the EU.
'What they have done in that clause is say, for the purposes of this contract, the UK counts as the EU.' But, he added, it does not mean they are entitled to doses made in UK factories.
In addition, clause 6.2 of the contract states that 'competing agreements' signed by AstraZeneca might affect the supply of vaccines to the EU.
'They knew there would be competing agreements,' Mr Barrett said. 'Everyone in the world knew there would be competing agreements. They knew that might mean doses were delayed.
'I believe the EU is publicly asserting that it now has a right to jump the queue and take doses that belong to other people. That is expressly wrong,' he added.
'This merely is a demonstration that the EU's mishandling of vaccine procurement and the roll-out has become a huge political problem for them,' Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said.
'Their knee jerk response [is] to become protectionists. They are getting hammered, quite rightly, so they are trying to deflect. It is a veiled threat.'
Fellow Tory David Jones added: 'It is a form of blackmail that they are engaging in. They have got a dispute with AstraZeneca over the provision of vaccine.
'How is that in any sense remedied by imposing a ban on Pfizer products being exported to the UK? They are behaving like playground bullies by trying to stop the UK from benefiting from the Pfizer vaccine. This crazy.'
Meanwhile the EU finally gave approval to the British-designed AstraZeneca jab, a month after the UK, dismissing concerns from Germans that there was not enough data to show it is effective in the over-65s.
The European Union is currently embroiled in a very public war of words with AstraZeneca over its jab, after the company announced initial shipments to the bloc would be cut by at least 60 per cent while supplies to the UK would be unaffected.
In an extraordinary move, the EU is trying to force the drug-maker to ship jabs made in the UK to the continent to make up for the shortfall, despite the company insisting the two supply chains are separate.
Earlier in the day, Brussels published a version of the contract it signed with AstraZeneca to try and force the vaccine-maker to send doses made in the UK to Europe - but appeared to have shot itself in the foot.
And in another embarrassing stumbling bloc for the EU, it emerged that they have not purchased any new Novavax shots - which passed phase III trials yesterday - while the UK bought 60million doses five months ago.
Meanwhile, in a further blow to the EU's shambolic vaccine roll-out, it emerged today that the bloc has yet to purchase any Novavax vaccines - the latest jab to pass phase III trials on Thursday with an effectiveness of 90%.
In an attempt to force the issue, the EU today published a version of the contract it signed with AstraZeneca - though a lawyer who spoke to MailOnline said it actually shows their position to be 'legally unsustainable'
This is the key paragraph that the EU hopes will bolster its claim to the UK vaccines - though AstraZeneca insists the UK and European supply chains are separate and that delays in one will not affect the other
How are other European countries doing with their vaccine roll-out?
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