EU has triggered article 16 over controls on vaccine exports

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

@DayBath I have many many EU friends and family. They are furious.

I too see Germany as the bullies of the EU.

I am interested if Nicola sturgeon is thinking hmmm not sure now is the time to push for an independence referendum

who are they furious with Blessex?

@CarolEffingBaskin

Absolutely agree. I’ve lost friends due to my decision to vote Leave, called racist and xenophobic (ignoring the fact that my job is immigration lawyer so I have literally dedicated my career to helping people move to the U.K.).. My reasons were always due to excessive bureaucracy and the unaccountability of the Commission. I do not want to see any more deaths from this terrible disease for any country, but it’s nice to have my husband finally say to me ‘maybe you did have a point about the EU’.

I wouldn't say shit stirring on the most sensitive border in Europe is mere 'sabre rattling’

Me either! It also looks like Ireland was completely blindsided by this too. Who is making these decisions? And why aren’t countries who will be directly impacted by them - potentially destabilised even - being consulted or at least given a heads up?

Madness.

This is an extract from an Irish Times article on another thread

But there’s a far larger story than a fight among the world’s richest populations over who gets a vaccine first. The EU has put €500 million towards buying vaccines for poorer countries, but because supply has all been block-booked for the rich nations, that doesn’t translate into doses. As of last week, 39 million doses had been given in richer countries, according to the World Health Organisation. Among poorer countries, just 25.
The WHO has warned that unless doses are equally distributed internationally, new variants may continue to emerge that will make the whole effort fruitless.
“It’s in every nation’s own medium- and long-term interest to support vaccine equity,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote this week. “Until we end the pandemic everywhere, we won’t end it anywhere.”

@TheGoldenCircle

I didn’t live in the UK for many years and had no hesitation in voting Brexit. The UK people were brainwashed into thinking being in the EU was best for us. It wasn’t. Also, no one really saw what was going on here in that it’s all about German dominance over Europe where they failed twice before and just changed tact.

People think Brexiteers are just racists. I actually cried this morning when I read that we have offered 300,000 HK Chinese a route to live here. I used to live there and they will add so much to our country. Funny, kind, educated, hard working and industrious people.

Many of us saw through the EU and it doesn’t make me happy to say that. I’m glad that others are starting to see this and I hope it heals the rift sooner.

Great post - totally agree - so happy to welcome our Hong Kong friends here.

I'm watching this with interest.

I voted Leave and had been increasingly regretting it, but this reminds me of some of the reasons I didn't trust the EU.

@Oblomov20

I too see Germany as the bullies of the EU.

Agreed, but Germany IS the EU and the more things change the more they stay the same...

This fight's going to be far more cost effective than the last one though, if all we had to do was fight for Brexit, then stand quietly back and watch them implode from a safe distance.

Once Germany realises that the UK is no longer a viable target, France will need all the luck in the world.

Well well well. The MN ‘give me one fucking reason why leave is a good idea’ brigade have gone very quiet haven’t they?

It is incredible to think the EU have been this stupid and vindictive.
Turns out the Good Friday Agreement wasn’t so important after all and we were only ever being used as a bargaining chip.

Political grandstanding is all very well but it could have a real and destabilising impact on what is a very fragile peace.

@Dongdingdong

Well well well. The MN ‘give me one fucking reason why leave is a good idea’ brigade have gone very quiet haven’t they?

They certainly have and I'm fuming, had a rant on a couple of other threads after sitting on my hands (a lot) over the last few days!

Haven't they just @Dongdingdong!

And why aren’t countries who will be directly impacted by them - potentially destabilised even - being consulted or at least given a heads up?

So basically the Rep of Ireland has no say in its own country. The EU Commission unilaterally decided that it should have a border, ignore The Good Friday Agreement and stoke NI tension without consultation. If this isn’t a wake up call what is. Other EU countries would do well to quickly realise they have no sovereignty in their own countries and get out.

Bullies

when Owen Jones is criticising the eu you know they have gone badly dreadfully horrifically wrong.

Shit, do the eu leaders know this owen barometer of doom??

There was so much comment about how difficult UK wouid find negotiating trade deals because we wouid lose the EU expertise.

Fucking this up so badly and so publicly, shows that perhaps they're not so skilled after all.

And it looks as though the Brexiteers who said that much of the EU stance during withdrawal negotiations was simply bullying were not wide of the mark

But leaving the EU has created this.
Sadly this is just the start of issues over ...most things. Triumphant leavers at the minute...but watch this space....scary stuff.

It's all beginning to feel a bit like a pantomime!

Wow!

But leaving the EU has created this

In what way Braeburn?

But leaving the EU has created this

Not really it doesn't matter whether it's a newly departed former member or a country that has never been near. It's the EU kicking off about a company which supplied vaccines when ready to a country ready to buy. Rather than stockpiling for a different order for a different customer who was not then in a position to buy.

Given the global imperative to get people vaccinated, leaving doses languishing in a warehouse should have been immoral

@nimbuscloud

This is an extract from an Irish Times article on another thread

But there’s a far larger story than a fight among the world’s richest populations over who gets a vaccine first. The EU has put €500 million towards buying vaccines for poorer countries, but because supply has all been block-booked for the rich nations, that doesn’t translate into doses. As of last week, 39 million doses had been given in richer countries, according to the World Health Organisation. Among poorer countries, just 25.
The WHO has warned that unless doses are equally distributed internationally, new variants may continue to emerge that will make the whole effort fruitless.
“It’s in every nation’s own medium- and long-term interest to support vaccine equity,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote this week. “Until we end the pandemic everywhere, we won’t end it anywhere.”

And yet the 'English' strain and the terrible state of England's grip on the pandemic is all over the Irish news. Surely the fact we have more vaccines is a good thing, since we are up shit creek with this compared to developing countries. Getting the UK vaccinated quickly would, in this case, be 'to each according to their needs'.

BraeburnPlace

Correct. Abuse often escalates when the abused leaves the abuser.

Not a good reason to stay though.