Category Archives: European commission

EU and UK hold ‘productive’ talks on Northern Ireland crisis

Posted on by

Brexit minister David Frost says momentum has been established in efforts to ease tensions

Talks between the EU and UK to ease tensions in Northern Ireland have been described as “productive” and “constructive” with momentum now established to achieve a solution to the crisis, the Brexit minister, David Frost, has said.

But the EU used the first face-to-face meeting since lockdown between Lord Frost and the European commission vice-president, Maroš Šefčovič, to warn that the outcome needed to be jointly agreed.

Continue reading...

UK recognition of EU’s vaccine effort would not go amiss, says Brussels

Posted on by

Europe could have fully vaccinated 70% of adults before UK reaches its target, says head of EU taskforce

The UK will be reliant on the EU to complete its vaccine rollout and a little recognition of that would not go amiss, the European commissioner leading Brussels’ vaccine taskforce has said – adding that Europe could have fully vaccinated 70% of adults before the UK reaches its own target of one dose for all over-18s by the end of July.

Thierry Breton also said AstraZeneca had agreed that almost all the Covid vaccine doses made in the Netherlands over which the UK has made a claim will stay in the EU.

Continue reading...

Italian PM calls Erdoğan ‘a dictator’ after Ursula von der Leyen chair snub

Posted on by

Diplomatic spat erupts as Mario Draghi accuses Turkish president of humiliating European commision president

A diplomatic spat has erupted between Turkey and Italy, after prime minister Mario Draghi accused president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of humiliating European commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and described him as a “dictator”.

Von der Leyen – the commission’s first female president – was left without a chair during a meeting on Tuesday with Erdoğan and the European council president Charles Michel met Erdoğan. The commission chief was clearly taken aback when the two men sat on the only two chairs prepared, relegating her to an adjacent sofa.

Continue reading...

UK ministers silent on AstraZeneca vaccine shipment to Australia

Posted on by

Downing Street will not confirm or deny report that more than 700,000 Covid jabs were sent after EU blocked export

British ministers and officials did not deny that more than 700,000 shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine were secretly dispatched from the UK to Australia a few weeks ago as the EU blocked the drug’s export.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that 717,000 AstraZeneca doses were dispatched in late February and March from the company’s British operations – also during a period when the EU was demanding the vaccine from the UK.

Continue reading...

Ursula von der Leyen snubbed in chair gaffe at EU-Erdoğan talks

Posted on by

Awkward moment as EC chief consigned to sofa at meeting where women’s rights was on agenda

Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission’s first female president, was “surprised” after being left without a chair during a meeting of the EU’s two presidents and Turkey’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and has demanded such a snub is never repeated.

The German head of the commission was left visibly irritated at the start of the talks in Ankara with her two male counterparts, Erdoğan and Charles Michel, the former Belgian prime minister who is president of the European council.

Continue reading...

EU takes Poland to court over law that ‘undermines judges’

Posted on by

European commission’s latest move in long-running dispute draws defiant response from Warsaw

The European commission has said it is taking Poland to the bloc’s highest court over a legal change it alleges undermines judges’ independence and prevents them applying EU law, drawing an instant and defiant response from Warsaw.

In the latest salvo in a longstanding dispute over respect for the rule of law, Brussels said on Wednesday it was also asking the European court of justice (ECJ) to make an interim order suspending Poland’s 2019 law until its final judgment is delivered.

Continue reading...

‘Lack of perspective’: why Ursula von der Leyen’s EU vaccine strategy is failing

Posted on by

European commission president accused of focusing too much on UK and domestic German image

Forging unity within the European Union is rarely easy for a president of the European commission but Ursula von der Leyen managed at least to bring together two strange bedfellows in recent days.

When Jean-Claude Juncker, her predecessor in the commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, took aim at the EU’s error-strewn vaccine strategy last week, it prompted a tweet of appreciation from Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris Johnson and key architect of Brexit.

Continue reading...

EU leaders back ‘global value chains’ instead of vaccine export bans

Posted on by

Refusal to support measure despite Ursula von der Leyen highlighting 21m doses sent to UK

EU leaders backed “global value chains” rather than support Brussels in using new powers to block Covid jab exports to highly vaccinated countries, despite being told that 21m doses had been sent to the UK.

At a virtual summit, attended briefly by Joe Biden, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, highlighted the large shipments sent over the Channel, amounting to two-thirds of the jabs given in the UK.

Continue reading...

EU leaders push back against bloc’s plans to halt Covid vaccine export

Posted on by

More sceptical member states hope ‘stick will never be used’ amid concerns over supply chain

EU leaders are likely to shy away from supporting the use of new powers to block Covid vaccine shipments to countries such as the UK with better jab coverage than the bloc, according to a draft statement ahead of a meeting of EU leaders today.

The European commission has increased its scope for blocking vaccine exports but disquiet among capitals is set to be reflected in a muted statement at the end of the virtual summit on Thursday evening.

Continue reading...

AstraZeneca plant investigated by Italian police at EU’s request

Posted on by

Investigation is fresh sign of breakdown in relations between Brussels and Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier

An AstraZeneca plant has come under investigation by the Italian police at the request of Brussels in a sign of the breakdown in relations between the Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier and the EU.

Officers were sent into the facility in the town Anagni, east of Rome, on Saturday evening after the European commission contacted the Italian government with concerns.

Continue reading...

UK singled out for failing to export Covid vaccines to EU

Posted on by

European commission revising export authorisation mechanism ‘to ensure vaccination of EU’

Britain has been singled out for failing to export Covid vaccines to the EU as Brussels empowered officials to prohibit shipments of doses to countries with a better vaccination coverage than within the bloc.

Valdis Dombrovskis, a European commission vice-president, said the commission was revising its export authorisation mechanism in order to “ensure vaccination of our own population”.

Continue reading...

EU’s southern states step up calls for ‘solidarity’ in managing mass migration

Posted on by

Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Malta say burden has to be shared more justly with other EU partners

Europe’s southern states have stepped up calls for solidarity in managing mass migration to the bloc saying the burden has to be shared more justly with other EU partners.

Highlighting the deep divisions over the issue, politicians from countries along Europe’s Mediterranean rim said a proposed migration pact fell far short of resolving the crisis equitably.

Continue reading...

Ursula von der Leyen says EU could halt vaccine exports to UK – video

Posted on by

The EU commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has hinted that the bloc could withhold vaccine exports to the UK, reopening a dispute with the British government over supply delays affecting the European inoculation campaign. 'We want reciprocity,' she said. 'This is an invitation to show us that there are also doses coming to us from the UK'

Continue reading...

Vaccine row: EU has exported 34m doses – including 9m to the UK

Posted on by

Internal figures leaked amid tit-for-tat with Boris Johnson over claims UK had export ban in place

A total of 34m doses of coronavirus vaccine have been exported from the EU despite shortages for people living in the bloc, including 9m sent to the UK and 1m to the US, which has a ban on sales abroad.

The internal figures were leaked as the EU was embroiled in a tit-for-tat with Boris Johnson over claims that the UK had an export ban in place.

Continue reading...

Belgium considers U-turn on Oxford Covid vaccine for over-55s

Posted on by

Several European countries opted not to give the jab to older age groups due to lack of data

People over the age of 55 in Belgium could be given the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, as the government seeks to “reset” its heavily criticised vaccination programme.

Belgium joined Germany, France, Poland and Italy last month in only giving the vaccine to younger groups due to a comparative lack of data on its efficacy in the older age ranges in the Oxford/AstraZeneca clinical trials.

Continue reading...

Brexit cost will be four times greater for UK than EU, Brussels forecasts

Posted on by

Departure to cost EU 0.5% of GDP but UK 2.25% by end 2022, according to first official estimate since deal was agreed

The economic blow dealt by Brexit will be four times greater in the UK than the EU, according to the latest forecasts by Brussels.

A month into the new relationship, the European commission said the UK’s exit on the terms agreed by Boris Johnson’s government would generate a loss in gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of 2022 of about 2.25% in the UK compared with continued membership. In contrast, the hit for the EU is estimated to be about 0.5% over the same period.

Continue reading...

Ursula von der Leyen admits failings in EU Covid vaccine rollout – video

Posted on by

European commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday acknowledged failings in the EU's approval and rollout of vaccines against Covid-19. ‘We were late to authorise, we were too optimistic when it came to mass production and perhaps we were too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time,’ she told MEPs

Continue reading...

French minister criticises UK’s ‘risky’ Covid vaccine strategy

Posted on by

Clément Beaune says French would not accept such risks, as he defends EU’s slower progress

Britain has taken “a lot of risks” in its Covid vaccination programme that would be intolerable to the French public, France’s Europe minister, Clément Beaune, has said in defence of the EU’s record on vaccines.

With 14% of the UK adult population having received a first jab, compared with 3% of people across the 27 EU member states, there is growing discontent in the bloc.

Continue reading...

AstraZeneca must deliver vaccine doses from UK to EU, says Von der Leyen

Posted on by

Commission president says company legally obliged to use UK plants to help deliver on order

Ursula von der Leyen has said it is “crystal clear” that AstraZeneca is bound by its contract to deliver coronavirus vaccine doses produced in the UK to the EU to make up for a shortfall in production in Belgium.

The European commission president dismissed the arguments of AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soirot, that the British government had a first claim on doses produced in Oxford and Staffordshire.

Continue reading...

Britain and EU clash over claims to UK-produced Covid vaccine

Posted on by

EU health commissioner dismisses AstraZeneca argument it is contractually obliged to supply UK first

Britain is on a collision course with the European Union over vaccine shortages after Brussels refused to accept that people in the UK have first claim on Oxford/AstraZeneca doses produced in local plants.

The EU’s health commissioner outright dismissed on Wednesday an argument made by Pascal Soriot, the Anglo-Swedish company’s chief executive, that he was contractually obliged to supply the UK first.

Continue reading...