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EU and AstraZeneca







WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,766
I see this didn't make it through the weekend.

Reading back a few pages, it is ironic that a thread where you could quite rightly and justifiably have a pop at the EU, was relegated to the Bear Pit due to a couple of anti EU posters not being able to contain their rants.

Oh well. Onwards and Upwards

(And I bet one of them gives me a thumbs up for this, from one of their other accounts :dunce:)
 
Last edited:


Chicken Run

Member Since Jul 2003
NSC Patron
Jul 17, 2003
19,805
Valley of Hangleton
I see this didn't make it through the weekend.

Reading back a few pages, it is ironic that a thread where you could quite rightly and justifiably have a pop at the EU, was relegated to the Bear Pit due to a couple of anti EU posters not being able to contain their rants.

Oh well. Onwards and Upwards

(And I bet one of them gives me a thumbs up for this, from one of their other accounts :dunce:)

Oh and like a slow cooked stew you’re back to give it a little stir [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 








nicko31

Well-known member
Jan 7, 2010
18,574
Gods country fortnightly
I see this didn't make it through the weekend.

Reading back a few pages, it is ironic that a thread where you could quite rightly and justifiably have a pop at the EU, was relegated to the Bear Pit due to a couple of anti EU posters not being able to contain their rants.

Oh well. Onwards and Upwards

(And I bet one of them gives me a thumbs up for this, from one of their other accounts :dunce:)

What I find interesting is the number of anti-EU posters on this thread that have been completely absent from the Brexit thread for the past few years (even prior to the Brexit thread entered the Bear Pit)

Then as soon as the EU has a bad hair day, its oh...thank god we're out etc etc

Brexiters were asked to name a single trade opportunity that was better than our existing arrangement, THEY FAILED

Brexiters were then asked to name any tangible benefit of leaving the EU period, THEY FAILED

Now not surprisingly the only perceived benefit is to highlight a failings of the other side, WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG?

Strange times...
 


beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,014
What I find interesting is the number of anti-EU posters on this thread that have been completely absent from the Brexit thread for the past few years (even prior to the Brexit thread entered the Bear Pit)

and so the pro-EU posters run over here and to maintain their arguements. its both sides that derailed this thread.
 


Randy McNob

> > > > > > Cardiff > > > > >
Jun 13, 2020
4,724
What I find interesting is the number of anti-EU posters on this thread that have been completely absent from the Brexit thread for the past few years (even prior to the Brexit thread entered the Bear Pit)

Then as soon as the EU has a bad hair day, its oh...thank god we're out etc etc

Brexiters were asked to name a single trade opportunity that was better than our existing arrangement, THEY FAILED

Brexiters were then asked to name any tangible benefit of leaving the EU period, THEY FAILED

Now not surprisingly the only perceived benefit is to highlight a failings of the other side, WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG?

Strange times...

Nationalistic brainwashing to the point we cheer other people not getting vaccinated
 




nicko31

Well-known member
Jan 7, 2010
18,574
Gods country fortnightly
[tweet]1356030562671202307[/tweet]

Yeap, if we were doing things correctly we have still be in second which would be brilliant.

Don't screw around READ THE LABEL like everyone else
 


Is it PotG?

Thrifty non-licker
Feb 20, 2017
25,453
Sussex by the Sea
What I find interesting is the number of anti-EU posters on this thread that have been completely absent from the Brexit thread for the past few years (even prior to the Brexit thread entered the Bear Pit)

Then as soon as the EU has a bad hair day, its oh...thank god we're out etc etc

Brexiters were asked to name a single trade opportunity that was better than our existing arrangement, THEY FAILED

Brexiters were then asked to name any tangible benefit of leaving the EU period, THEY FAILED

Now not surprisingly the only perceived benefit is to highlight a failings of the other side, WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG?

Strange times...

Most people have moved on, as much as they can right now.

Not too obsessed with this 'name a benefit, go on, go on'.

The only thing I would say is the EU had 'a bad hair day' was like saying this virus has been a minor inconvenience.

We are permanently out of an organisation that has proven its worth in recent days.

I hope that helps.
 


WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,766
and so the pro-EU posters run over here and to maintain their arguements. its both sides that derailed this thread.

I have to say, in the hour preceding it's relegation to the Bear pit
But, of course, that doesn’t help in your case to slag off the Tories and suck off the EU.
was a personal highlight for me. Did you have any favourites :wink:
 




WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,766
Most people have moved on, as much as they can right now.

Not too obsessed with this 'name a benefit, go on, go on'.

The only thing I would say is the EU had 'a bad hair day' was like saying this virus has been a minor inconvenience.

We are permanently out of an organisation that has proven its worth in recent days.

I hope that helps.

Yes we know that you can't name a benefit and that it was a major cock up by the EU, and we know that you knew what you were doing to the financial services industry, the logistics industry, exporters, the fishing industry, Northern Ireland etc because you knew what you voted for.

But you really don't need to try and keep justifying what you did :shrug:

Your a winner. We are not in the EU anymore. Move on :thumbsup:
 


Mellor 3 Ward 4

Well-known member
Jul 27, 2004
10,233
saaf of the water
What I find interesting is the number of anti-EU posters on this thread that have been completely absent from the Brexit thread for the past few years (even prior to the Brexit thread entered the Bear Pit)

Then as soon as the EU has a bad hair day, its oh...thank god we're out etc etc

Brexiters were asked to name a single trade opportunity that was better than our existing arrangement, THEY FAILED

Brexiters were then asked to name any tangible benefit of leaving the EU period, THEY FAILED

Now not surprisingly the only perceived benefit is to highlight a failings of the other side, WHY HAS IT TAKEN SO LONG?

Strange times...

I would rather be in the EU still (despite the fact that my business has benefitted hugely from the exchange rate changes due to the 2016 vote - exports have boomed in the last 4.1/2 years, so there's a tangible benefit) I've said this several times - however this been far worse than the EU ' having a bad hair day' - their behaviour over the past week has been appalling and gives credence to loons like Farage.

Read through carefully Katya Adler's (the most Pro EU Journo the BBC have got) report below and it is very easy t understand why people voted for Brexit when decisions like this are made, without any referral to any of the Govts. involved(including ROI)

Any thoughts anyone had of rejoing the EU are now dead for a decade at least.

Here's Katya's article:

"Misjudgement", "mismanagement", "blunder"... and words that were far, far stronger.

That's what I've been hearing from EU insiders about the European Commission's initial decision on Friday to suspend part of the Brexit deal agreement on Northern Ireland, in its rush to impose restrictions on Covid vaccines, or components of vaccines, exported from the bloc.

The EU vaccine roll-out is in very clear trouble. EU countries are openly desperate to get hold of the jabs they have been promised to put in voters' arms. But representatives of member states I've spoken to say they were blindsided by the European Commission move.

"We certainly weren't asked about it," one EU diplomat told me. "If we had been, we would have shouted loudly that it was a terrible idea. The decision was taken, in a hurry, at the top or close to the top [of the Commission]."

Even more astonishing, considering the huge sensitivity of the Northern Ireland chapter of the Brexit deal, EU member Ireland wasn't consulted, or even informed, of the Commission's intention.

Nor were those in the Commission with intimate knowledge of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland arrangement: former EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier and colleagues.

They tried to intervene on Friday evening, urging a swift U-turn on the policy, even as Boris Johnson and the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin held separate conversations with the European Commission president.

'What do we look like now?'

Remember just how long and difficult the Brexit negotiations were in reaching an agreement on Northern Ireland? Think about how often the EU lectured the UK government about the importance of respecting the detail of the arrangement; how peace in Northern Ireland was at stake.

Yet the impression the European Commission gave on Friday - however incorrect or unintended, which is what it insists - is that those concerns could be thrown aside in a heartbeat.

EU national diplomats, whom I've spoken to over the years as part of my Brexit coverage, appeared frustrated and dismayed.

"Over and again, I've repeated to the press the importance and the fragility of peace in Northern Ireland and how we in the EU appreciated and respected the importance of getting the Brexit deal right," a representative from a prominent EU country told me.

"And what do we look like now? This was a disaster. It plays into the hands of EU-haters and UK opponents of the Brexit deal."

Another diplomat questioned whether the team around Commission President Ursula von der Leyen actually understood the Irish protocol in the Brexit deal. "They came in right at the end. Most of the deal was agreed under [former Commission President Jean-Claude] Juncker. Maybe they just don't get it?"

The European Commission back-tracked late on Friday (although it has reserved the right to revisit the issue, it says, if it sees EU-manufactured vaccines entering the rest of the UK via Northern Ireland).

The U-turn was publicly welcomed by Micheál Martin. But take a look at political and press reaction in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and you'll see a lot of damage had already been done.

'Car crash in slow motion'

But Friday's "Northern Ireland fiasco" as I've heard it referred to, doesn't feature very prominently in the media elsewhere in Europe. The focus remains on the absence of vaccines, promised by the European Commission, which agreed contracts with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of all its members.

Here again EU politicians seem increasingly irritated with what is now perceived as incompetence at the highest levels of the Commission. Friday's mess-up over the Brexit Northern Ireland agreement is being described to me as "a symptom" of mismanagement of the wider vaccine programme.

"It's like watching a car crash in slow motion," one irate EU diplomat told me. "President von der Leyen is a medical doctor. She wanted to take over the mass purchase of vaccines for all the EU - as a high-profile exercise. Normally health issues are dealt with nationally. This hasn't been a great advertisement for handing over powers to Brussels. I think that's the lesson member states will take away from this."

It should be said that smaller, less well-off EU countries are still relieved the Commission represented them on the vaccine market, otherwise, they say, they'd have found themselves "at the back of the queue".

There is definite EU-wide anger too at pharmaceutical companies, which have delayed vaccine deliveries. Especially AstraZeneca, which is understood to have promised the EU 100 million doses before the end of March. It has now said it can supply only a fraction of that amount.

But by now - when EU governments look at how far ahead the UK and the US are compared to the EU in their vaccine roll-outs - blame is also being directed at Ursula von der Leyen. Some in the EU say privately she may come under pressure to resign.

The Commission stands accused of not investing enough in expanding vaccine production sites. And Bavarian leader Markus Soeder - a favourite to replace Angela Merkel as German chancellor - is far from alone when he lashed out at the Commission last week for being "too late" in concluding vaccine contracts.

AstraZeneca's argument (rejected by the EU) as to why it's honouring its agreement with the UK first, is, it says, because the Johnson government signed on the dotted line three months before Brussels.

So now what?

The priority for people across the EU is protecting themselves and their families. They were promised a vaccine action-plan they're not - or not yet - getting. Which, in turn, is having an impact on domestic politics. Take the Netherlands or Germany, for example, as they head towards parliamentary elections.

Vaccine appointments have been cancelled in France, Portugal, Spain and beyond because of dwindling supplies.

Could the tone soften?

The European Commission is under pressure to take effective action. But of late it has given the impression of firing hastily in all directions - threatening AstraZeneca with legal proceedings; demanding some of the company's vaccines be diverted to the EU from production centres in the UK; risking alienating allies in Japan, Canada and Australia with new authorisation requirements for vaccine exports from the EU; and dragging the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland into the fray.

None of this, so far, has resulted in reducing the EU's vaccine shortfall.

Of course, not all aspects of the current vaccine debacle are the fault of the Commission. Aside from pharmaceutical company delays, the EMA, the EU's medical regulator, has been slow to approve the use of individual vaccines. Some EU countries have proved more efficient than others with their national roll-out programmes.

AstraZeneca and others have promised far larger vaccine supplies for the EU come the spring. Perhaps the EU mood towards the Commission may then soften, but not now, while the health threat from Covid looms large.
 


Is it PotG?

Thrifty non-licker
Feb 20, 2017
25,453
Sussex by the Sea
Yes we know that you can't name a benefit and that it was a major cock up by the EU, and we know that you knew what you were doing to the financial services industry, the logistics industry, exporters, the fishing industry, Northern Ireland etc because you knew what you voted for.

But you really don't need to try and keep justifying what you did :shrug:

But your a winner. We are not in the EU anymore. Move on :thumbsup:

No winners and losers here, just folks getting on with life.
 




JC Footy Genius

Bringer of TRUTH
Jun 9, 2015
10,568
Oh and like a slow cooked stew you’re back to give it a little stir [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
He's obviously feeling lonely again, time would be better spent learning which countries belong to which trade organisations [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
 


WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,766
I would rather be in the EU still (despite the fact that my business has benefitted hugely from the exchange rate changes due to the 2016 vote - exports have boomed in the last 4.1/2 years, so there's a tangible benefit) I've said this several times - however this been far worse than the EU ' having a bad hair day' - their behaviour over the past week has been appalling and gives credence to loons like Farage.

Read through carefully Katya Adler's (the most Pro EU Journo the BBC have got) report below and it is very easy t understand why people voted for Brexit when decisions like this are made, without any referral to any of the Govts. involved(including ROI)

Any thoughts anyone had of rejoing the EU are now dead for a decade at least.

Here's Katya's article:

"Misjudgement", "mismanagement", "blunder"... and words that were far, far stronger.

That's what I've been hearing from EU insiders about the European Commission's initial decision on Friday to suspend part of the Brexit deal agreement on Northern Ireland, in its rush to impose restrictions on Covid vaccines, or components of vaccines, exported from the bloc.

The EU vaccine roll-out is in very clear trouble. EU countries are openly desperate to get hold of the jabs they have been promised to put in voters' arms. But representatives of member states I've spoken to say they were blindsided by the European Commission move.

"We certainly weren't asked about it," one EU diplomat told me. "If we had been, we would have shouted loudly that it was a terrible idea. The decision was taken, in a hurry, at the top or close to the top [of the Commission]."

Even more astonishing, considering the huge sensitivity of the Northern Ireland chapter of the Brexit deal, EU member Ireland wasn't consulted, or even informed, of the Commission's intention.

Nor were those in the Commission with intimate knowledge of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland arrangement: former EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier and colleagues.

They tried to intervene on Friday evening, urging a swift U-turn on the policy, even as Boris Johnson and the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin held separate conversations with the European Commission president.

'What do we look like now?'

Remember just how long and difficult the Brexit negotiations were in reaching an agreement on Northern Ireland? Think about how often the EU lectured the UK government about the importance of respecting the detail of the arrangement; how peace in Northern Ireland was at stake.

Yet the impression the European Commission gave on Friday - however incorrect or unintended, which is what it insists - is that those concerns could be thrown aside in a heartbeat.

EU national diplomats, whom I've spoken to over the years as part of my Brexit coverage, appeared frustrated and dismayed.

"Over and again, I've repeated to the press the importance and the fragility of peace in Northern Ireland and how we in the EU appreciated and respected the importance of getting the Brexit deal right," a representative from a prominent EU country told me.

"And what do we look like now? This was a disaster. It plays into the hands of EU-haters and UK opponents of the Brexit deal."

Another diplomat questioned whether the team around Commission President Ursula von der Leyen actually understood the Irish protocol in the Brexit deal. "They came in right at the end. Most of the deal was agreed under [former Commission President Jean-Claude] Juncker. Maybe they just don't get it?"

The European Commission back-tracked late on Friday (although it has reserved the right to revisit the issue, it says, if it sees EU-manufactured vaccines entering the rest of the UK via Northern Ireland).

The U-turn was publicly welcomed by Micheál Martin. But take a look at political and press reaction in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and you'll see a lot of damage had already been done.

'Car crash in slow motion'

But Friday's "Northern Ireland fiasco" as I've heard it referred to, doesn't feature very prominently in the media elsewhere in Europe. The focus remains on the absence of vaccines, promised by the European Commission, which agreed contracts with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of all its members.

Here again EU politicians seem increasingly irritated with what is now perceived as incompetence at the highest levels of the Commission. Friday's mess-up over the Brexit Northern Ireland agreement is being described to me as "a symptom" of mismanagement of the wider vaccine programme.

"It's like watching a car crash in slow motion," one irate EU diplomat told me. "President von der Leyen is a medical doctor. She wanted to take over the mass purchase of vaccines for all the EU - as a high-profile exercise. Normally health issues are dealt with nationally. This hasn't been a great advertisement for handing over powers to Brussels. I think that's the lesson member states will take away from this."

It should be said that smaller, less well-off EU countries are still relieved the Commission represented them on the vaccine market, otherwise, they say, they'd have found themselves "at the back of the queue".

There is definite EU-wide anger too at pharmaceutical companies, which have delayed vaccine deliveries. Especially AstraZeneca, which is understood to have promised the EU 100 million doses before the end of March. It has now said it can supply only a fraction of that amount.

But by now - when EU governments look at how far ahead the UK and the US are compared to the EU in their vaccine roll-outs - blame is also being directed at Ursula von der Leyen. Some in the EU say privately she may come under pressure to resign.

The Commission stands accused of not investing enough in expanding vaccine production sites. And Bavarian leader Markus Soeder - a favourite to replace Angela Merkel as German chancellor - is far from alone when he lashed out at the Commission last week for being "too late" in concluding vaccine contracts.

AstraZeneca's argument (rejected by the EU) as to why it's honouring its agreement with the UK first, is, it says, because the Johnson government signed on the dotted line three months before Brussels.

So now what?

The priority for people across the EU is protecting themselves and their families. They were promised a vaccine action-plan they're not - or not yet - getting. Which, in turn, is having an impact on domestic politics. Take the Netherlands or Germany, for example, as they head towards parliamentary elections.

Vaccine appointments have been cancelled in France, Portugal, Spain and beyond because of dwindling supplies.

Could the tone soften?

The European Commission is under pressure to take effective action. But of late it has given the impression of firing hastily in all directions - threatening AstraZeneca with legal proceedings; demanding some of the company's vaccines be diverted to the EU from production centres in the UK; risking alienating allies in Japan, Canada and Australia with new authorisation requirements for vaccine exports from the EU; and dragging the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland into the fray.

None of this, so far, has resulted in reducing the EU's vaccine shortfall.

Of course, not all aspects of the current vaccine debacle are the fault of the Commission. Aside from pharmaceutical company delays, the EMA, the EU's medical regulator, has been slow to approve the use of individual vaccines. Some EU countries have proved more efficient than others with their national roll-out programmes.

AstraZeneca and others have promised far larger vaccine supplies for the EU come the spring. Perhaps the EU mood towards the Commission may then soften, but not now, while the health threat from Covid looms large.

Very good summary :thumbsup:
 


Chicken Run

Member Since Jul 2003
NSC Patron
Jul 17, 2003
19,805
Valley of Hangleton
He's obviously feeling lonely again, time would be better spent learning which countries belong to which trade organisations [emoji106]

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

I don’t mind him tbh, he’s never rude, quite cheeky and loves a good [emoji6], I think he uses other accounts to vent his bitterness though, hence the apparent smokescreen he puts up about duplicate accounts, oldest trick in the book[emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 


Chicken Run

Member Since Jul 2003
NSC Patron
Jul 17, 2003
19,805
Valley of Hangleton
I would rather be in the EU still (despite the fact that my business has benefitted hugely from the exchange rate changes due to the 2016 vote - exports have boomed in the last 4.1/2 years, so there's a tangible benefit) I've said this several times - however this been far worse than the EU ' having a bad hair day' - their behaviour over the past week has been appalling and gives credence to loons like Farage.

Read through carefully Katya Adler's (the most Pro EU Journo the BBC have got) report below and it is very easy t understand why people voted for Brexit when decisions like this are made, without any referral to any of the Govts. involved(including ROI)

Any thoughts anyone had of rejoing the EU are now dead for a decade at least.

Here's Katya's article:

"Misjudgement", "mismanagement", "blunder"... and words that were far, far stronger.

That's what I've been hearing from EU insiders about the European Commission's initial decision on Friday to suspend part of the Brexit deal agreement on Northern Ireland, in its rush to impose restrictions on Covid vaccines, or components of vaccines, exported from the bloc.

The EU vaccine roll-out is in very clear trouble. EU countries are openly desperate to get hold of the jabs they have been promised to put in voters' arms. But representatives of member states I've spoken to say they were blindsided by the European Commission move.

"We certainly weren't asked about it," one EU diplomat told me. "If we had been, we would have shouted loudly that it was a terrible idea. The decision was taken, in a hurry, at the top or close to the top [of the Commission]."

Even more astonishing, considering the huge sensitivity of the Northern Ireland chapter of the Brexit deal, EU member Ireland wasn't consulted, or even informed, of the Commission's intention.

Nor were those in the Commission with intimate knowledge of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland arrangement: former EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier and colleagues.

They tried to intervene on Friday evening, urging a swift U-turn on the policy, even as Boris Johnson and the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin held separate conversations with the European Commission president.

'What do we look like now?'

Remember just how long and difficult the Brexit negotiations were in reaching an agreement on Northern Ireland? Think about how often the EU lectured the UK government about the importance of respecting the detail of the arrangement; how peace in Northern Ireland was at stake.

Yet the impression the European Commission gave on Friday - however incorrect or unintended, which is what it insists - is that those concerns could be thrown aside in a heartbeat.

EU national diplomats, whom I've spoken to over the years as part of my Brexit coverage, appeared frustrated and dismayed.

"Over and again, I've repeated to the press the importance and the fragility of peace in Northern Ireland and how we in the EU appreciated and respected the importance of getting the Brexit deal right," a representative from a prominent EU country told me.

"And what do we look like now? This was a disaster. It plays into the hands of EU-haters and UK opponents of the Brexit deal."

Another diplomat questioned whether the team around Commission President Ursula von der Leyen actually understood the Irish protocol in the Brexit deal. "They came in right at the end. Most of the deal was agreed under [former Commission President Jean-Claude] Juncker. Maybe they just don't get it?"

The European Commission back-tracked late on Friday (although it has reserved the right to revisit the issue, it says, if it sees EU-manufactured vaccines entering the rest of the UK via Northern Ireland).

The U-turn was publicly welcomed by Micheál Martin. But take a look at political and press reaction in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, and you'll see a lot of damage had already been done.

'Car crash in slow motion'

But Friday's "Northern Ireland fiasco" as I've heard it referred to, doesn't feature very prominently in the media elsewhere in Europe. The focus remains on the absence of vaccines, promised by the European Commission, which agreed contracts with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of all its members.

Here again EU politicians seem increasingly irritated with what is now perceived as incompetence at the highest levels of the Commission. Friday's mess-up over the Brexit Northern Ireland agreement is being described to me as "a symptom" of mismanagement of the wider vaccine programme.

"It's like watching a car crash in slow motion," one irate EU diplomat told me. "President von der Leyen is a medical doctor. She wanted to take over the mass purchase of vaccines for all the EU - as a high-profile exercise. Normally health issues are dealt with nationally. This hasn't been a great advertisement for handing over powers to Brussels. I think that's the lesson member states will take away from this."

It should be said that smaller, less well-off EU countries are still relieved the Commission represented them on the vaccine market, otherwise, they say, they'd have found themselves "at the back of the queue".

There is definite EU-wide anger too at pharmaceutical companies, which have delayed vaccine deliveries. Especially AstraZeneca, which is understood to have promised the EU 100 million doses before the end of March. It has now said it can supply only a fraction of that amount.

But by now - when EU governments look at how far ahead the UK and the US are compared to the EU in their vaccine roll-outs - blame is also being directed at Ursula von der Leyen. Some in the EU say privately she may come under pressure to resign.

The Commission stands accused of not investing enough in expanding vaccine production sites. And Bavarian leader Markus Soeder - a favourite to replace Angela Merkel as German chancellor - is far from alone when he lashed out at the Commission last week for being "too late" in concluding vaccine contracts.

AstraZeneca's argument (rejected by the EU) as to why it's honouring its agreement with the UK first, is, it says, because the Johnson government signed on the dotted line three months before Brussels.

So now what?

The priority for people across the EU is protecting themselves and their families. They were promised a vaccine action-plan they're not - or not yet - getting. Which, in turn, is having an impact on domestic politics. Take the Netherlands or Germany, for example, as they head towards parliamentary elections.

Vaccine appointments have been cancelled in France, Portugal, Spain and beyond because of dwindling supplies.

Could the tone soften?

The European Commission is under pressure to take effective action. But of late it has given the impression of firing hastily in all directions - threatening AstraZeneca with legal proceedings; demanding some of the company's vaccines be diverted to the EU from production centres in the UK; risking alienating allies in Japan, Canada and Australia with new authorisation requirements for vaccine exports from the EU; and dragging the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland into the fray.

None of this, so far, has resulted in reducing the EU's vaccine shortfall.

Of course, not all aspects of the current vaccine debacle are the fault of the Commission. Aside from pharmaceutical company delays, the EMA, the EU's medical regulator, has been slow to approve the use of individual vaccines. Some EU countries have proved more efficient than others with their national roll-out programmes.

AstraZeneca and others have promised far larger vaccine supplies for the EU come the spring. Perhaps the EU mood towards the Commission may then soften, but not now, while the health threat from Covid looms large.

Knowing their behaviour over the vaccine issue one can only imagine what this abhorrent group of people must have been like to negotiate with!

Oh and I did laugh at Nicko31’s “bad hairday”comment too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 






WATFORD zero

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 10, 2003
27,766
I don’t mind him tbh, he’s never rude, quite cheeky and loves a good [emoji6], I think he uses other accounts to vent his bitterness though, hence the apparent smokescreen he puts up about duplicate accounts, oldest trick in the book[emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


If I were really sad and pathetic enough to go to all that trouble, I would make a bloody sight better job of it than JCFG/POTG? :wink:
 


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