Thread by @BrunoBrussels

We feel like bit part actors in a German drama, said a diplomat last night of EU export ban driven, as many see it, by prospect of electoral annihilation for Merkel's Christian Democrats at the polls

thetimes.co.uk/article/ben-wa…

Dutch see Netherlands as having little or no legal choice if the European Commission blocks the exports of the unfinished vaccine product

Ownership would be a potential question, can Brussels force AstraZwneca to use the product for fill and finish? That's why EU might trigger draconian 122 clause to give power to confiscate products

EU is divided but decision would be QMV to crush the opposition. Doves led by the Dutch caught in the middle between theirown open trade tradition and the EU juggernaut
thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-…

The European Commission s targeting what are thought to be substantial stockpiles of the active ingredient or “drug substance” of the AstraZeneca vaccine made at the Dutch Halix factory in Leiden

The plant is due to be authorised for European production next Wednesday and commission is demanding that stocks made recently and destined for the UK are diverted to the EU

Usually the active ingredient would travel from the Netherlands to AstraZeneca’s Wrexham factory for “fill and finish” although the vast bulk of active ingredients comes from a factory in the north east of England

An EU export ban targeting the active ingredient rather than filled and finished vials of the vaccine could unleash damaging tit-for-tat measures that could bring all European production of jabs to a halt

British factories make and supply lipid nanoparticles raw materials that are crucial for the production of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine as well as other pharmaceutical supplies

“It would be like that moment in Reservoir Dogs. If the EU pulls the trigger everyone's guns go off and we are all dead,” said a diplomatic source