EU vaccine drive is a 'fiasco', says Guy Verhofstadt

Attack comes as France claims British strategy 'has more risks'

Source - Daily Telegraph 15/02/20

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The EU's Covid vaccination efforts have been branded a "fiasco" by Guy Verhofstadt, who called for Brussels to renegotiate its "ill-conceived" contracts with manufacturers.

In a video called "the inconvenient truth behind the vaccination fiasco of the EU", former Belgian prime minister Mr Verhofstadt laid the blame for low vaccine rates squarely at the feet of the European Commission and denounced the "diplomatic disaster" Brussels caused when triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

"If you believe in Europe, if you love Europe, it's your duty to be the most vocal critic, especially when Europe falls short of its potential and our expectations. That's exactly what’s happening now with the vaccinations," the MEP said. "It's a fiasco."

Mr Verhofstadt pointed to the fact that only four per cent of EU citizens have on average received a first dose of a Covid  jab and that rates in some countries have ground to a halt in recent days due to factors such as bad weather and local administrative bottlenecks.

"Europe is no more, no less than the world leader in vaccine production today. More than 75 per cent of vaccines worldwide are produced in Europe. Nevertheless, there is a crucial lack of supply," he said, adding the UK, Canada, Israel and the US are not facing the same shortages.

His intervention came as a French minister criticised the UK's jab drive, saying it "has more risks" and is "not something I would like to have here".

Last week, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, told MEPs that Brussels had been "too optimistic" about production volumes and regulator approval deadlines.

Mr Verhofstadt dismissed that mea culpa and blamed the vaccine contracts that the commission brokered, particularly the AstraZeneca deal and its "best reasonable efforts" provision.

The former PM, who failed on two separate occasions to land the commission presidency himself, said: "I think the measures taken by the Commission are hugely symbolic, insufficient and counter-productive."

He called for a "radical change in strategy" and a renegotiation of the "ill-conceived" contracts with binding targets and deadlines. The EU's medicines agency should also follow faster approval procedures for new vaccines such as the single-dose Johnson & Johnson jab and Germany’s CureVac, he said.

Mr Verhofstadt's "inconvenient truth-telling" is in contrast to comments by France's Europe minister, Clement Beaune, who said the UK's vaccine strategy "has more risks" and is "not something I would like to have here".

"The British are going faster because they have relied heavily on the first injection," he told France Info. "If we take a look at the number of people who have had both injections in the UK and the EU, France included, we see that the number of fully vaccinated people is lower in the UK."

Mr Beaune added that "they have relied heavily on the first dose, setting a very wide gap between the first and the second injection. And that is not recommended by our health authorities, by our Ministry of Health".