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The EU’s current behavior is very sad to see, when up to now they had seemed much more sensible than the UK government. AZ had production problems in the EU --
by iainmerrick 6y ago
The EU’s current behavior is very sad to see, when up to now they had seemed much more sensible than the UK government.
AZ had production problems in the EU -- perfectly understandable as it’s a complex operation and they started somewhat later than in the UK. The EU Commission responded by threatening legal action (??) and almost bypassing the hard-won Northern Ireland border agreement (!!??!!) before backtracking. Ridiculously petty, dangerous, and does nothing to solve the problem and save lives.
- renaudg 6y agoI've found UK media coverage of this row disturbingly one-sided (even amongst pro-EU journalists) You may want to read this for a more balanced view : https://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/dragging-astrazeneca-to-inevitable-compromise-in-covid-19-vaccine-row-1.4471383 https://www.irishtimes.com/business/health-pharma/dragging-a... It was really AZ's screw up. The fact is that the EU had a contract with AZ that explicitly required the use of UK plants for fulfilling the EU's orders if need be. But the problem is that AZ had also promised the UK it would have priority over the goods produced on its soil...
- iainmerrick 6y agoI’ll take a look, thanks! The threat to invoke the border protocol was absolutely shocking to me, so I’m very interested to learn more of the background. Edit to add: for others reading this thread, here’s an article from the same site about that border protocol dispute: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/shellshock-in-brussels-after-commission-blunder-1.4474558 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/shellshock-in-bruss...