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Dave Keating Profile picture
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2 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
A lack of understanding of EU politics. Failure to take responsibility for mistakes. Siloed thinking.

These were all things people in Germany (like @jonworth) said about VDL when she was forced upon Brussels by Macron & Merkel in 2019.
nytimes.com/2021/02/01/wor…
It's no secret VDL was not Brussels' preferred candidate for Commission President. She wasn't even a candidate at all.

EU Parliament still resents her for being forced upon them by national governments who rejected #spitzenkandidat process. Is now the time they take revenge?
VDL is secure. EU parliament can remove her, but there isn't public support for that. These frustrations remain a Brussels bubble preoccupation.

Article 16 scandal hasn't registered with people in continental Europe, who support measures to give them vaccines they were promised.
VDL is meeting (in private 🙄) with European Parliament political groups today.

If they want to, MEPs can demand a head from VDL's inner circle which is apparently responsible for this error of judgement on Friday.

But MEPs from VDL's EPP would need to join the effort.

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More from @DaveKeating

Dave Keating Profile picture
4 Feb
After what we've seen over the past week, I think it's time to revisit this question posed by @wblau.

At this point, having UK media be the *main* way the world gets news about the EU is as logical as the world getting its US news from Mexican media. link.medium.com/GYJ3Y6Q8Adb
EC made a serious error a week ago by briefly threatening to trigger Article 16.

EC should be held to account. But UK media has gone completely overboard, serving a UK government narrative that seeks to use EU's blunder as political cover for UK to violate the Irish protocol.
Meanwhile, that there is an "EU vaccine disaster" has become the unquestioned starting point in UK media and then parroted in US media.

The more complicated reality, that the roll-outs are a national competence and some (🇮🇹) are succeeding while others (🇫🇷) are failing, is lost.
Read 8 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
4 Feb
There’s a new #vaccine conflict brewing.

Johnson & Johnson wants to send vaccines its made in the EU to the US for packaging, before sending it back.

The problem? US vaccine export restrictions could allow the US to take those vaccines for itself.
bloombergquint.com/business/j-j-r…
EU governments are worried about this and have asked the Commission whether the J&J vial finishing could be done in the EU.

But Bloomberg reports that a senior EU official told ambassadors that doing some fill and finish in the US was *a condition of the J&J contract*. 😲
Serious questions will be asked about why the Commission would allow a contract that seems to force a vaccine to go back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean for no reason.

Trust between the EU and these foreign pharma giants is breaking down.
Read 5 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
3 Feb
💉 Europe #vaccines update: Several EU countries including #Germany, #France, #Poland & #Sweden have announced they will avoid giving the #AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 65, citing a lack of data on its safety and efficacy for them.

Belgium has set the threshold at 55.
🇪🇺 President @vonderleyen told MEPs yesterday she accepts “full responsibility” for the #Article16 screw-up on Friday, according to people in the room.

She said the EU's joint procurement strategy and waiting for EMA conditional approval is the right one to avoid #VaccineWars.
📩 Ahead of a meeting with member states today, VDL & the PM of Portugal (which holds rotating presidency) have written a letter to governments acknowledging that the EU's vaccine roll-out has been "challenging and sensitive".

They defended the new export transparency mechanism.
Read 5 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
31 Jan
Details emerging about what happened Friday with the Article 16 screw-up. It’s not looking good for @VonDerLeyen.

Apparently text was crafted by her close (German) inner circle and sent to commissioners just 30 minutes before they were asked to approve. ft.com/content/417e08…
This has been a constant complaint about VDL’s leadership since she took office 14 months ago

She’s been accused of only listening to her German advisors and not consulting with her team of 26 commissioners

Today she’s reinforced that image by only giving an interview to 🇩🇪 TV
Is this the moment that growing frustration with Von Der Leyen’s leadership bubbles over?

We’ll see. MEPs want to hear from her this week. This isn’t just about the article 26 mistake, it’s about a pattern of behaviour.
Read 6 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
31 Jan
The counterfactual ‘if UK was still in EU it would have slowed vaccinations’ doesn’t make sense.

Without #Brexit, UK could have (and surely would have):

🙅🏻‍♂️Said no to joint procurement
👨‍🔬Emergency-authorised early

But couldn’t have:

Had vaccine deliveries from EU restricted
When you point out UK did both these things last year while under EU rules, some say "but if we werent leaving we'd have been pressured to stay in line"

Who really believes any such pressure would have worked? UK has refused to join EU programs all the time (ex: Schengen & euro)
The EU joint procurement scheme has always been *voluntary*. All EU/EEA countries decided it's best to join it to avoid #VaccineWar.

Once they join, they can't make side deals for vaccines in the program. But UK surely wouldn't have joined in 1st place.
ec.europa.eu/health/securit…
Read 4 tweets
Dave Keating Profile picture
29 Jan
NEW - Commission will scrub mention of Article 16 Irish border mechanism from export control regulation text.

EU sources say it was an error that will be fixed tonight.

A remarkable oversight, but at least they’re walking it back.
Someone’s in trouble
Here’s the Commission’s statement.

They could still decide to trigger this later if Northern Ireland were being used as a back door for blocked exports.

But that was always a very unlikely scenario, hence why it was so crazy to include the mention of Article 16 in the 1st place Image
Read 4 tweets

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