EU’s reputation shredded in vaccine fiasco

There's a kind of pathetic petulance in the way the European Commission is doggedly trying to present the outcome of its week-long spat with Covid vaccine provider AstraZeneca as some class of success.

Having retreated hastily from its threat to invoke article 16 of the Northern Irish Brexit protocol, it was left surveying the ruins of a badly-overplayed hand. Dragging nations into what was fundamentally a commercial contract dispute was never going to be a positive move.

Reversing at a stroke nearly five years of careful and consistent EU policy on Ireland and Brexit was careless and reckless. It escalated the vaccine row too far to allow the commission to return to its more direct confrontation with AstraZeneca and its pursuit of meaningful compromise on vaccine supply between now and the end of March.

The only correct course at that stage was contrition – and a quick exit for the adviser or advisers behind Friday's debacle. Instead we have had commission president Ursula von der Leyen reheating an old supply announcement from Pfizer and selling as success a token gesture from AstraZeneca that had been available since the middle of last week but which had rightly been dismissed at that time as nowhere near good enough.

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Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly’s hailing of them as progress spoke volumes about his own understanding of the position.

Ireland and other EU nations will now have to get by on roughly half the already reduced supply expected from AstraZeneca for the next two months. Across Europe that will further hamper national vaccination campaigns.

While it is not fair to compare the EU rollout with a UK effort that has cut several corners on approval and second doses in a race to ensure as many people as possible get some vaccine, the inept handling of events exacerbates an already unhelpful impression of an EU leadership at sea in managing the pandemic.

Von der Leyen was chosen as a safe pair of hands to lead a commission formed at a time of division in the bloc. Just over a year in office, the past few days may fatally undermine her chances of successfully addressing some of the big issues facing post-Brexit Europe.