BRUSSELS (AP) – European Union leaders no longer gather around a common oval summit table to achieve their famous commitments. Instead, each of the 27 looks at the other heads of state or government with suspicion through a video screen showing a mosaic of distant capitals.
This is what COVID-19 has worked on.
The high hopes that the crisis will favor a new, narrower bloc to face a common challenge have given way to the reality of division: the pandemic has pitted the member nation against the member nation and many capitals against the EU itself, as symbolized by the unknown, virtual meetings that leaders now hold.
Leaders are fighting for everything from virus passports to boosting tourism to conditions to receive pandemic aid. Perhaps worse, some attack the same structures the EU built to deal with the pandemic. Last month, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz denied how buying vaccines on the blog had become a “bazaar,” alleging that the poorest countries exploded while the rich prospered.
“Internal political cohesion and respect for European values continue to be challenged in different corners of the Union,” the European Policy Center said in a study a year after the pandemic swept China and ravaged Europe.
In some places, there have been demands for political accountability.
On Wednesday, in the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Andrej Babis fired his health minister, the third to be fired during the pandemic in one of Europe’s hardest hit countries. Last week, the Slovak government renounced a secret agreement to buy Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and in Italy Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was forced to resign over his treatment of the economic consequences of the pandemic.
But overall, political unrest across the EU has been extinguished, given that half a million people have died in the pandemic. At EU level, there have been no serious calls for the removal of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the bloc’s chief executive, despite acknowledging that serious mistakes were made.
It is clear that the EU has not lived up to it so far, and it is not clear if it can. The European Policy Center noted that “there is no immediate end in the face of the health crisis, not to mention the inevitable structural economic challenges.”
The EU and its countries, of course, were the victims of some events beyond their control, as did other nations around the world. It can well be argued that part of the block’s problems are due to the delayed deliveries of the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. But part of the crisis clearly caused itself.
The typical complaint is that there is no united EU health structure to deal with the pandemic and that health is still a national domain. But for years, the blog has had a common drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency. And since last summer, the EU has decided to pool vaccine purchases and distribute them equitably among the 27 nations, large and small, richest and poorest.
But while some non-EU nations were moving forward with emergency use permits, the EMA was moving more slowly, at least in part because it followed a process that was largely similar to the standard licensing procedure being pursued. would grant any new vaccine.. The agency’s first green light from the vaccine came about three weeks after one was well in the UK, the first country to authorize a rigorously tested COVID-19 shot.
The blog was never updated. On Friday, for example, the UK had given 46.85% of its citizens at least one dose, compared to 14.18% in the EU.
The EU also made the mistake of over-equating vaccine insurance with shooting in the arms and underestimating the difficulties involved in mass-producing and mass-distributing such a delicate product. While EU negotiators focused on liability clauses in a contract, other nations thought about logistics and boosted speed and volume.
And while nations like the United States sealed their borders to export vaccines, the EU adopted high moral ground and kept exports flowing, to the point that during the first quarter of the year almost as many doses left the bloc for to third countries as they were handed over to the resounding EU member states.
In addition to the wrong steps with the deployment of vaccines, the EU will take a long time to disburse money from its € 750 billion ($ 890 billion) rescue package, which will share the debt and grant subsidies to the poorest members in a way unprecedented. But arguing among leaders over some clauses and complicated rules have made it anything but a quick process. What’s worse, the German constitutional court could still torpedo or further delay the whole initiative.
The nature of the crisis may be different from the previous ones, but family obstacles arose: heavy bureaucracy, unnecessary delays, as legalistic and technical disputes overshadowed the general picture and controversial politicians who put their own interest in the common good. .
Last week was an example. The EMA reiterated its advice for all member countries to remain united, this time to continue using AstraZeneca cuffs for all adults despite a possible link to extremely rare cases of blood clotting.
Instead, hours after the announcement, Belgium opposed the recommendation, banning AstraZeneca for citizens 55 and under, and others issuing or maintaining similar restrictions.
“If government leaders do not trust science, confidence in vaccination is gone. If we don’t trust (the EMA), ANY common EU approach is doomed, ”said Guy Verhofstadt, the EU’s main parliamentarian, usually the strongest of the EU’s sponsors.
It should be noted that EU nations insisted on delaying their vaccination actions in December, especially because they wanted to wait for the EMA decision. But many have repeatedly ignored EMA advice in subsequent months, setting more restrictions on vaccine use than the agency has called for.
This extreme hesitation in many countries – in addition to the advice that is often given – has become the hallmark of erroneous vaccination. It has exacerbated the supply and confidence issues the blog has faced.
With just half the doses the EU had contracted during the first quarter (105 million instead of 195 million), last month’s video summit saw EU countries vying for gunfire and a system of distribution that some considered unfair.
There are now expectations that the EU can turn it around. He expects 360 million shots this quarter, which will keep alive the promise of vaccinating 70% of adults by the end of summer in the 450 million block.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron gave some hope to millions when he said that a return to a normal appearance of life might come in mid-May when people could “recover our art of living embodied by our restaurants and coffees I love so much. “
Then EU leaders could even mingle in person at all-night summits.