Wisps in the vaccine dispute: Von der Leyen embarrassed the EU

In order to distract people from their own mistakes in procuring vaccines, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen snubbed several partner countries and placed pharmaceutical companies under general suspicion. The damage is immense – especially for Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen rowed meekly back at night: There would be no controls at the inner-Irish border. The so-called Northern Ireland Protocol remains "untouched", it is said from Brussels. It is remarkable that it should be touched at all – barely a month after the final Brexit. For years the EU and Great Britain fought over the open border on the island. It is intended to prevent the Northern Ireland conflict from flaring up again. Now the laboriously negotiated consensus was on the brink because of the vaccination dispute between the EU Commission and the British-Swedish vaccine manufacturer Astrazeneca; if only for a few hours. The political damage is done. And von der Leyen is responsible.

In search of a scapegoat for the EU's messed up vaccine procurement, the Commission boss is relying on maximum escalation – but that doesn't solve a single problem, it just creates new ones. Keyword: Great Britain. The former member state is not responsible for the fact that the longed-for vaccination doses only arrive in the EU in small amounts. Rather, the EU itself is to blame, which made contracts with the most promising vaccine producers too hesitant or backed the wrong horses out of national interests. The consequences of this are now visible to everyone: both the vaccines from Sanofi (France) and Janssen (Belgium) are proving to be disappointing. The EU secured 500 million cans of it.

The argument from Brussels that, after all, nobody could know which vaccines would be approved first is threadbare. As early as the summer of 2020, Biontech and Pfizer drew attention to themselves with positive study results. At the end of July, the USA secured the first 100 million vaccine doses, while Great Britain secured 30 million. And the EU did nothing. It was only in November, less than six weeks before the vaccine was approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), that Brussels ordered 300 million doses. Far too late and far too little. It was just as difficult with the supply contract with Moderna, the second vaccine manufacturer approved in the EU. The first batches were ordered at the end of November – also only six weeks before the EMA gave the green light.

Wax EU treaties

Those who mean well with the EU Commission are reminded of the fact that everything could have turned out much worse. Because health policy is a matter for the member states, and without concessions – whether with the vaccine candidates, with money or the contracts – an agreement of all 27 member states on a common procurement plan would hardly have been possible. In the global struggle for distribution of the most promising vaccines, poorer EU countries would inevitably have lost out. Critics, however, argue that the entire EU is now literally looking into the pipe – while Great Britain is benefiting from its regained independence. And they are right. That hurts.

All the more, however, because the conclusion from the EU's point of view could have been a shrug – at least if the contracts with the other vaccine suppliers had been watertight. But they are not. Both in the contract with Curevac, whose vaccine is expected in the second quarter of 2021 at the earliest, and with Astrazeneca, "Best Efforts" clauses allow legal scope for interpretation. Von der Leyen may deny it. But to nail down the companies to fixed delivery quotas, if only their "best effort" is required in the contract, is almost hopeless. If it came to court proceedings, the EU would first have to prove that the company violated the clause. How that should work is a mystery even to lawyers.

Vaccine protectionism à la EU

Quite apart from that, a process could possibly take years. Time, money and energy that could be better used elsewhere in the middle of the pandemic. But von der Leyen continues to insist on her point of view, is confident – and has the contract published. As if the citizens had to decide who is right. This is nothing more than a big bluff. Just like the export controls. In search of the guilty party for self-created problems, von der Leyen shifts the theater of war from his own front door to the renegade neighbor – and risks an additional loss of confidence in the EU. Both from the outside and from the inside.

Your attempt to turn the tables and put pressure on pharmaceutical companies by imposing export barriers to "European" vaccine doses is a colossal mistake – and embarrassing for Europe. After all, it was the head of the commission herself who grandly talked about global solidarity in the fight against the virus in the summer of 2020. Now Brussels has to let the WHO publicly reproach itself for its vaccination protectionism. A political price that has not yet been matched by a single additional vaccination dose. Von der Leyen forgets that her enemy is not in London or Cambridge, but wherever Europeans get the virus every day. Righteousness and political hara-kiri do not help them.