PANDEMIC EXPOSES THE SYSTEMIC FAILINGS OF THE EU

At the end of 2020, hope was on the horizon. The arrival of effective and safe vaccines would allow Europe to emerge from the wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic and rolling lockdown. The day before the start of the EU’s vaccine rollout, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen hailed ‘vaccination day’ as a ‘moment of unity’ – the product of a ‘European success story’.

Several weeks later, and the picture is clearly very different. The EU has vaccinated just three per cent of its population, trailing behind its closest neighbour – Brexit Britain – which this week surpassed 15 per cent. Supplies of the vaccine have dwindled on the continent, forcing the rollout to pause in parts of Germany, Italy and Spain.

The EU’s attempts to deal with this have led to blazing diplomatic rows with the UK, Ireland, Japan and Canada over export controls. In their flailing, the French president and sources in the German government have been caught spreading untruths about some of the vaccines’ efficacy. The best German chancellor Angela Merkel could say of the situation was, ‘I believe that nothing has gone wrong."