- 29 Jan 2021 22:24
#15153703
Admin Edit March 11 2021: Title amended as it was the UK that stopped vaccine supplies into the EU and not vice-versa
Spectator wrote:At first, it sounded like empty rage. The European Union had spent all week making wild statements about controlling vaccine exports – even challenging the notion of contract law. Tonight, it has started to act on its words and announced it will introduce controls on vaccines made in the EU – potentially giving itself the power to stop Pfizer sending Britain the vaccines it has paid for. Worse, it has announced that it may use its powers to impose border restrictions on Northern Ireland.
The EU is using the ‘last resort’ mechanism in the recently-agreed Northern Ireland Protocol, Article 16, that could unilaterally impose a land border that both the UK and EU spent years trying to avoid. At the time, the UK was assured this mechanism would only be used in the gravest of circumstance. As it turns out, it could be invoked after just 29 days – and, it seems, not because of Britain's behaviour. Just out of diplomatic anger.
This has stunned and enraged political parties across the UK spectrum. As Katy Balls reports on Coffee House, both Conservatives and Labour are pushing back on the EU. To Arlene Foster, Northern Ireland’s First Minister, it is an ‘incredible act of hostility’ showing that Brussels has ‘at the first opportunity’ placed a hard border between NI and the Irish Republic. There is disbelief in Dublin. Micheál Martin said he has urgently called the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to ask what on earth is going on.
The EU says it’s only using its powers to 'avert serious societal difficulties', because of its own failure to get its hands on vaccines. And Brussels has capped this off this by presenting Britain as the antagonist. ‘The EU has pushed to co-ordinate the vaccines contract on behalf of the 27 precisely to avoid a vaccines war between EU countries,’ said Didier Reynders, EU justice commissioner. ‘But maybe the UK wants to start a vaccine war.’
Northern Ireland gets its vaccine supplies straight from the UK, something the EU is powerless to prevent, so it should not be hit by any export ban directly. What makes this all harder to comprehend is that the UK and EU are at the beginning of a new relationship, and the Brexit nuclear button has been pressed at a time when no one in Brussels is even suggesting that Britain has done anything wrong.
Article 16 was designed to be used once all other pathways have been exhausted. It was meant as a tool that could be used if there were unexpected issues with the new trade rules that were creating significant economic pain. The EU has decided that its own failure to procure vaccines in a decent timeframe justifies its use. By triggering Article 16 so quickly and under these conditions, the fear is that the EU will erode the Protocol, by defining 'last resort' this way.
The International Chamber of Commerce pre-empted the export ban by writing to the European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen yesterday, issuing a warning that any such action could break down vaccine supply chains, as countries take ‘retaliatory action’ against the bloc.
The EU's decision is a clear-cut example of how desperate times lead to desperate measures: but countries are defined by what they do in extremis. Producing vaccines is literally a matter of life and death, and the bloc appears to have decided that no actions are off the table.
But by taking such drastic measures, it has also confirmed some of the negative comments made about the bloc: primarily that its so-called commitment to rules, laws and institutions only extends as far as its own immediate benefit. It is not on principle, but on sheer opportunism, that it preaches international cooperation.
Its movements tonight will not be forgotten. Countries will question how resilient their trade deals with the bloc really are. Manufacturers will think twice before they set up shop in Europe. It will leave a political mark too, not just tainting the Brexit deal, but impacting debates in the UK: Scottish nationalists may find it harder to argue that Scotland is better off in the EU than the UK, given the rapid decline of the bloc's treatment of NI.
The EU has long had its critics, but the most positive framing of it has always been its promotion of free trade and free people, providing a rules-based framework for poorer European countries living in the shadow of authoritarianism. Tonight, it has managed to undermine even its best credentials.
Admin Edit March 11 2021: Title amended as it was the UK that stopped vaccine supplies into the EU and not vice-versa
EN EL ED EM ON
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...