To expect this from Trump, not the EU?

[The6thQueen]

Maybe I’m naive or need to be ‘educated’, but this smacks of a toddler throwing their toys out of the pram

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-italy-and-eu-block-oxford-vaccine-shipment-to-australia-12235848

I've lived outside the EU for two decades and I'm not surprised at all.

Welcome to the rest of the world, UK.

How do you mean @TomPinch?

Nah - it doesn’t surprise me unfortunately - judging by the behaviour of them lately, nothing they now do will surprise me.

I don’t know what the situation is in Italy but the fucking nerve of the EU when France and Germany aren’t even using their existing supply of the AZ vaccine.

It's a tad hypocritical of them.

Its starting to make me think we are well out of it.

France and Germany are moving the unused A-Z to other countries where they will be used.
I'm not sure what was expected. The EU financially supported the research of A-E vaccine with 336 million euro of funding.
I'm not sure why the UK keeps painting the EU as some kind of a half-charitable organisation, the incapable and clumsy silly uncle who doesn't know what to do. The UK were prepared to break the treaties, they were prepared to disregard the Good Friday Agreement and were it not for Biden elected the US President instead of Trump, they would have done it and they're upset because the EU is showing that it's capable of protecting their interests? What a bloody hypocrisy. Neither Johnson nor any of Brexiters wouldn't have cared if the whole of Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland bathed in blood and you dare to call up the EU for finally taking care of their own member states using products funded by the EU? Feck off people, seriously.

I have no problem with the action just the hypocrisy. I thought the EU was against vaccine nationalism?

I agree with them that Europe is more vulnerable than Australia and given that they haven't had what they were contracted to get, they weren't wrong to do what they did.

This protects us as well. Millions of our citizens will be heading for Europe this year, or going there for connecting flights. The UK needs Europe to be vaccinated.

@tonytiy, they want what they were contracted to get. Their argument is that the manufacturers in the UK were supposed to meet the supply demand.

Are we ok with us handing ours over?

As far as I can understand it, it’s Italy refusing to send the vaccines. Italy has stated that Australia is not a vulnerable country, there is a shortage of vaccines in the EU still and it’s a high dosage that they requested. It seems quite reasonable. It’s certainly a far more coherent rationale than anything Trump would have come up with.

@The6thQueen

How do you mean *@TomPinch*?

The EU has always been very aggressive regarding trade in a way that no other entity is - even the US. Its agricultural policies and dumping of surpluses have done real damage to the economies of other countries over the last 40 years.

This approach has served the EU very well over the years. The danger now is that it pushes countries towards trading with China instead. The Chinese government had become the dominant trading nation in large parts of the world now, and they're slowly starting to ratchet up the political pressure on their partners. In the long run this could be very bad for the EU.

To be honest I am not surprised at all.

@adeleh

As far as I can understand it, it’s Italy refusing to send the vaccines. Italy has stated that Australia is not a vulnerable country, there is a shortage of vaccines in the EU still and it’s a high dosage that they requested. It seems quite reasonable. It’s certainly a far more coherent rationale than anything Trump would have come up with.

There are plenty of countries around the world that are far more vulnerable than anywhere in the EU. I don't see vaccines being shared with them either, leastways in the amounts required, so this is just hypocrisy.

It's particularly egregious, because the EU has stockpiles of unused Astrazeneca vaccine, due in part to its own leaders throwing shade on that vaccine.

EerieSilence

I would argue the EU are hypocrits on the issue of article 16.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2021/01/eu-has-surrendered-moral-high-ground-over-irish-border

Their vaccine funding has been a fraction of that of the UK or the US.

If Britain did this,the EU would be very quick to criticise - it's not right to prevent goods from being exported which someone else had bought and paid for, if they ordered prior to the EU.
Britain wasn't obligated to supply the EU until our own orders had been fulfilled iirc. Once that's the case I would be happy to export some supplies to the EU. As much as I think the EU as an organisation are fundamentally flawed, my dislike does not extend to people - I want everyone in Europe to be vaccinated. As things stand the EU does need the vaccines more than Australia.
The reality is that all countries need for all other countries to get the vaccination because collective action is the only way the world gets out of this without permanently imposing travel bans!

Well the EU has only vaccinated a tiny percentage of the population so far, so it seems reasonable not to be sending vaccines off, but especially not to a wealthy country that isn’t vulnerable.

And no the EU absolutely should not have invoked Article 16, but they backtracked within hours. It’s odd that people should be posting about that when the U.K., yet again, is threatening to break international law and threaten the GFA, and not backtracking very quickly.

they want what they were contracted to get.

I'm sure that Australia does too.

And yes Italy is vulnerable & has been hugely hit by covid. That why's it was such a shame that “No member state responded to Italy’s request and to the commission’s call for help,” said Janez Lenarčič, the European commissioner responsible for crisis management.

they want what they were contracted to get.

When you are at a point of ignoring others contracts and implimenting policies that they have, it might be that it isn't as simplistic as you try to make out.

I'm sure you was on the initial EU spitting the dummy out at the UK threads saying it wasn't a race..

The EU does tend to handle mass responses quite badly. They were slow to help Italy and should have done better. But now they are supporting Italy’s wish to protect its citizens in favour of exporting the vaccines to a country with less need.

The papers headline tonight was 3% of the population fully vaccinated in Ireland, what a joke.
It seems like the EU is desperate.

@tonytiy

they want what they were contracted to get.

I'm sure that Australia does too.

This.

The EU is behaving like the biggest kid in the playground. They genuinely think they should get priority just because.

There really isn't anything new about this. It's news in the UK because until recently the UK was part of it too.

@tonytiy
Why haven't you quoted the whole comment?
With this bit that no response was caused by lack of means not lack of solidarity?