EU has triggered article 16 over controls on vaccine exports

[soundofsilence1]

Breaking news on sky
news.sky.com/story/covid-19-eu-introduces-controls-on-vaccine-exports-to-northern-ireland-12202656

[quote notimagain]I think this gives an interesting insight into the EU's behaviour.

Says the BBC...other POVs are available...for example...

www.politico.eu/[/quote]
Yes, let's read some article on Politico.eu (whose podcast I listen to, it's always interesting). It's important, as you say, to get other POV's:

How Europe fell behind on vaccines

www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-struggle-pfizer-biontech-astrazeneca/

Macron trying to ‘reduce demand’ by criticizing Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, says vaccine scientist

www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-reduce-demand-oxford-astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine/

Redacted contract fails to clear up EU-AstraZeneca vaccine row

www.politico.eu/article/eu-astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine-contract-dispute/

France and Germany threatening legal action

www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/31/france-germany-threaten-covid-astrazeneca-vaccine-shortageeu-uk

@Baileysforchristmas,

Not really threatening, more blustering..,

Given that pharmaceutical companies can pretty much choose where to site manufacturing capacity and hold patents on life saving drugs that the EU need (including the vaccine), I suspect that the EU don’t hold the whip hand here.

@MRex

Pub analogy is more like...

The second family took so bloody long ordering that when they ordered a roast they were told it would now come at 4pm instead of 2.30pm.
"But when we arrived at 12, you said it would be 2.30pm" they said, "and now it's 1.30pm, we want our food in an hour".
"Yes, but you didn't order it then, it's 1.30pm now and still needs 2.5 hours of cooking time. You can have the chips first?"
"We don't want just chips, we want roast, give us some of their roast that's just coming out, a leg and some bits of breast."
"Well no, they ordered that."
"Jacques, stop any waiter coming out of the kitchen and grab all the chicken."

Very good, I like that

I voted remain and I would still but last night's stunt was shocking and shameful on part of the EU.

Exactly, I'm the same. It's possible to be a supporter of the remain position whilst at the same time being very critical of the stunt they pulled re the vaccines.

Especially as it had more to do with the pressure that the EU Commission is under after insisting that they would handle the distribution of vaccines rather than allowing individual national governments to do so. They have messed up on that big time and this was an act of panic more than anything else.

we should vaccinate our over 60’s and then share until all of EU over 60’s are also done before doing younger people here.

But the Germans and the French think the Oxford vaccine doesn't work on people over 65. Do you want to give it to them to vaccinate their younger people while under 65s in the UK remain unvaccinated?

As has been said on other threads, sharing only works if everyone has the same order of priorities.

Exactly @UserEleventyNine, I don't know why the EU have been bleating about wanting AZ vaccines when they won't even use them on the most vulnerable.

This is a useful link in case anyone believes it was a minor slip rather than deliberate inclusion, it shows the actual detailed text of including article 16: davidallengreen.com/2021/01/what-is-article-16-of-the-northern-irish-protocol-and-what-on-earth-was-the-european-commission-thinking-includes-a-copy-of-the-now-deleted-proposed-regulation/

Just put this on another thread and shows how it should be done. Cool heads and work together with your suppliers. Better than throwing toys out of prams and bullying others.

And what about the people standing outside the pub looking in the window because they’re too poor to buy a meal/food?

@Blessex - she's just passed the baton to France and Germany.

m.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/astra-zeneca-liefert-der-eu-nun-doch-mehr-impfstoff-17175096.html

And missing vaccines are suddenly available, contracted batch is going to be +9 millions vaccines, a week earlier. EU won. AstraZeneca wanted to send EU made vaccines somewhere else (against the contract) but EU acted.

First contracted batch*

On the AZ/EU dispute thread, @wakeupin222 shared a really useful link that give some context. I share here, because they're worth reading.

Two from researchers at Oxford on the initial funding of the vaccine development:
twitter.com/sandyddouglas/status/1355892619944079360
twitter.com/adamjohnritchie/status/1355136430402580482

And this commentary on a UK lawyer on the contract twitter.com/js_oleary/status/1355799338811797504

And this press release on the Oxford Biomedica/Astrazenaca UK manufacturing deal, in which capacity is reserved until end 2021. www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/09/01/2086741/0/en/Oxford-Biomedica-Signs-Supply-Agreement-with-AstraZeneca-to-Expand-Manufacturing-Support-of-COVID-19-Vaccine-Candidate-AZD1222.html

It certainly seems on the face of it as vaccines made in the UK are manufactured for AZ UK Ltd at Oxford Biomedica sites, and presumably are owned by them until sold.

Whereas the contract the EU signed was with "AstraZeneca AB, a party incorporated in Sweden".

I am not a lawyer, but on the face of it (as outlined in the commentary on the contract I linked to above) AZAB, with whom the EU signed their contract, does not even own the UK-manufactured doses which the EU is trying to say they should redirect to fulfill their contract. I can't see how even the most stringent definition of "Best Reasonable Efforts" would require anyone to hand over stuff which they have never owned.

@motorina

Thanks for reposting. Interesting stuff.

@Motorina

On the AZ/EU dispute thread, *@wakeupin222* shared a really useful link that give some context. I share here, because they're worth reading.

Two from researchers at Oxford on the initial funding of the vaccine development:
twitter.com/sandyddouglas/status/1355892619944079360
twitter.com/adamjohnritchie/status/1355136430402580482

And this commentary on a UK lawyer on the contract twitter.com/js_oleary/status/1355799338811797504

And this press release on the Oxford Biomedica/Astrazenaca UK manufacturing deal, in which capacity is reserved until end 2021. www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/09/01/2086741/0/en/Oxford-Biomedica-Signs-Supply-Agreement-with-AstraZeneca-to-Expand-Manufacturing-Support-of-COVID-19-Vaccine-Candidate-AZD1222.html

It certainly seems on the face of it as vaccines made in the UK are manufactured for AZ UK Ltd at Oxford Biomedica sites, and presumably are owned by them until sold.

Whereas the contract the EU signed was with "AstraZeneca AB, a party incorporated in Sweden".

I am not a lawyer, but on the face of it (as outlined in the commentary on the contract I linked to above) AZAB, with whom the EU signed their contract, does not even own the UK-manufactured doses which the EU is trying to say they should redirect to fulfill their contract. I can't see how even the most stringent definition of "Best Reasonable Efforts" would require anyone to hand over stuff which they have never owned.

Thanks really interesting links

I'm just intrigued how az Europe managed to iron out / fix yelild and production issues so quickly.
I hope they not borrowing from bojo playroom over promise add under deliver.
40 million is just a tiny fraction of 300million orders placed and option of addition 100million.
Clearly UK paid manufacturing set up.
Still confused what eu did pay for exactly.

What concerns me is the power they have over phizer as tool to retaliate because other companies let them down.

I assume court case is delayed right now.

www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-55879345?__twitter_impression=true

www.biospace.com/article/european-commission-raids-astra-zeneca-s-belgian-vaccine-plant/

theconversation.com/what-is-behind-the-eus-dispute-with-astrazeneca-over-covid-19-vaccines-154161

No worries.

If that interpretation is correct, it very much reinforces what the AZ CEO said about different supply chains being seperate for different customers. Not only different supply chains, but different contracted companies, so hard to see how there is any mutual obligation between them.

There was a discussion on R4 this morning (around 8:40) with a chap from Valneva. He very diplomatically said words to the effect of, "yields are unpredictable, everyone in the industry knows that" and "the UK has ordered and the EU hasn't. They need to pull their finger out if they don't want the same thing to happen again."

He was much politer than that, but that's the gist.

@deragod

m.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/unternehmen/astra-zeneca-liefert-der-eu-nun-doch-mehr-impfstoff-17175096.html

And missing vaccines are suddenly available, contracted batch is going to be +9 millions vaccines, a week earlier. EU won. AstraZeneca wanted to send EU made vaccines somewhere else (against the contract) but EU acted.

You have to put your cynical lenses on every time you read the press, but particularly a lot of European press. Yes they seem to have been promised an extra 9 Mn, bringing the total to 40 Mn, when in fact they thought they were getting 80 Mn and that's what the whole dispute is about. It's a very small success, but good that at least it sounds like they will be able to deliver more. Elsewhere German commentators are expecting today to be UvdL's "Apollo 13" moment, when she realises just how alone she is.

@Motorina

No worries.

If that interpretation is correct, it very much reinforces what the AZ CEO said about different supply chains being seperate for different customers. Not only different supply chains, but different contracted companies, so hard to see how there is any mutual obligation between them.

So far he seems to be playing it very up front and honest.

Asw far as I can tell the additional doses may well have come from the UK! UvdL has said as much in her Step Forward speech - vaccine factories in the UK and Europe would deliver doses to each region.

Which was pretty much the UK governments first response, see The Goviot's surprisingly grown up set of voxpops on Friday and Saturday - catching up on his utterances has been quite enlightening as BJ stays publicly silent - but plays open handed pleasant bloke when dealing with UvdL, it seems!

the AZ CEO said about different supply chains being seperate for different customers. which probably means that it was entirely a UK political decision to supply those additional 9million doses!

Maybe that should be said loudly, differently than it is being reported. That would certainly diffuse a lot of the anti UK and EU rhetoric!

God help me, Jeremy Vine will be asking "Why don't we share our excess vaccines with Ireland, after all they were treated appallingly by the EU"

So countless thousands will now be shouting at their radio about something that a) isn't possible b) Ireland have been offerred and declined c) comes just as diplomacy seems to have been restored

@CuriousaboutSamphire

God help me, Jeremy Vine will be asking "Why don't we share our excess vaccines with Ireland, after all they were treated appallingly by the EU"

So countless thousands will now be shouting at their radio about something that a) isn't possible b) Ireland have been offerred and declined c) comes just as diplomacy seems to have been restored

My vaccine - the one I am due to finally get in Group 6 or maybe some time this summer (depends if my GP considers my obesity to be serious enough) - NOT surplus or spare. FFS.

I am late 40s, fat, have a child living at home that needs me fit and well. I am at not inconsiderable risk of hospitalisation.

My vaccine is not surplus.

As a Remainer whose business has been badly affected by Brexit, literally the only benefit of Brexit to me is getting a vaccine sooner.

And the only thing the British government has managed well in this pandemic is the vaccine programme.

And we did have the highest death rate in the world a week or so ago so our situation is pretty bad in our own country.

As I said, the vaccines not yet administered to adults in this country are NOT spare or surplus.