The EU must learn from its Covid vaccine failure, not lash out at the UK

Britain’s vaccination effort has been an outstanding success so far. Praise is due to Kate Bingham, the former head of the vaccines taskforce, who took early and calculated decisions that effective vaccines could be developed and deployed faster than ever before. She advised, and Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Boris Johnson, the prime minister, decided. They made several of the right decisions, including signing an unambiguous contract with AstraZeneca, three months before the European Union did.

The EU is now in danger of seeming to be motivated by spite and envy. Its leaders have threatened to impound stocks of the Pfizer vaccine, made in Belgium, which the United Kingdom has bought; they have demanded that AstraZeneca vaccines made in the UK should be diverted to the EU; and they threatened to tear up the EU-UK trade treaty to impose a hard border in Ireland, only to claim last night that this was due to an “oversight”. 

Other EU leaders have accused the UK of “vaccine nationalism”, which is true in that the UK has not supplied its vaccinations to the citizens of other countries according to need – but no democratic country’s government would survive long if it did such a thing. Inevitably, our government is seeking to protect the vulnerable in this country first, and then to achieve herd immunity across the nation. But in the meantime AstraZeneca, with the support of the UK government, is also licensing its vaccine for local manufacture in India, and the UK will soon have a surplus of vaccines to export – at cost price – to the world. 

The UK’s better position is not a vindication of the decision to leave the EU. It has been pointed out repeatedly, including by June Raine, the head of the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, that EU member states have been entitled under EU law to procure emergency supplies of vaccines and to give them emergency authorisation. The UK was indeed subject to EU law when it ordered and approved the first vaccines, during the Brexit transition period.

However, the better position in which the UK finds itself does shine a stark and unforgiving light on the decisions of EU governments, and on the competence of the European Commission. EU governments chose not to use the emergency provisions to try to obtain vaccines more quickly, and decided to act collectively through the commission. Indeed, an early attempt by a group of EU countries to act independently was thwarted by pressure from the commission, backed by Angela Merkel’s German government. This was a bad mistake, and one from which the EU must learn. 

Michel Barnier, the former chief negotiator for the EU, suggested in an interview yesterday that the British might “choose to move closer to the single market” in future. It would be “the sovereign choice of the British, and according to what they consider to be in their interest”, he said. It is too early to be considering such options now, but his constructive and diplomatic tone was a welcome contrast with some of the hostile EU language of recent days. There will certainly come a time when the UK should at least consider rejoining the EU customs union. 

But attitudes in the UK and throughout Europe towards EU institutions have not been helped by their mishandling of the vaccinations programme. It is in the interests of the EU and its citizens that the European Commission be reformed: it must hand responsibility for medicine regulation and pandemic preparations back to member states.