Exclusive: EU's #COVID19 vaccine rollout remains slow. UK has immunised 5x more people than Germany. The British success has nothing to do with #Brexit, former Task Force Chief Kate Bingham tells @welt@repubblica but rather... (1/3, English version below) welt.de/politik/auslan…
Brussels taking 'a more typical procurement approach', while Bingham viewed the job 'just like a venture capital investment'. She tells me & @antoguerrera the simple instruction the PM gave her, who she calls in Germany, why she would go for #Sputnik (2/3)
how future jabs might look like, why EU's attacks on #AstraZeneca & the restrikting of their jab to under 65 year old are wrong. And that she doesn't mind being called 'the brilliantly batty heroine of our jabs triumph' welt.de/politik/auslan…
With all the #Brexit talk in UK focussed on loopholes and SpAds - maybe good moment for a change of perspective, based on some "Continental" insights this week. Starting with Barnier's Friday statement... (thread)
1/ Re #Brexit deal: Sources in Brussels & beyond confirm Barnier's terse words. No written, but more importantly no substantial proposals. (Expectations low that will change after #CPC19) EU27 not willing to endorse British holes in Single Market.
2/ Which makes the October Council possibly not a deal, but an extension Council. But: Remember the March 19 EU Council? Over night 27 leaders turned the table & wrote script for UK domestic agenda by giving Theresa May 2 deadlines.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt claimed last weekend Angela Merkel was willing to renegotiate the #Brexit deal since he had spoken personally to the German Chancellor. I checked his claims with a government spokesman in Berlin (thread): thesun.co.uk/news/brexit/92…
1/Hunt said he had talked to Merkel on the fringe of D-Day commemoration. The spokesman did not want to confirm any content 'since all conversations of the Chancellor are confident'
2/Acc to Hunt Merkel had stated 'with a new British PM the Europeans would certainly look at all solutions'. Berlin however points to Merkel's statement at the #Brexit Council April 10: EU27 'have again underlined that the Withdrawal Agreement applies and will not be changed...'
Exclusive: ‘Patience of EU27 is wearing thin,’ Brexit chief negotiator Michel Barnier tells @welt – but signals #Brexit compromise. Main take-aways of our interview (thread) welt.de/politik/auslan…
1/ General readiness by EU27 to extend Art 50. But EU27 will ask for what. ‘Aim mustn’t be to postpone solving the problem but to solve it’
2/ Any extension ‚is extension of uncertainty for citizens and business on both sides‘