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Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

9 Apr

Across Europe, royal family members and heads of state have been expressing their condolences. Prince Philip‘s ‘Europe Connection’ dates from the very beginning #PrincePhilip /1

Born in 1921 on the Greek island of Corfu, his father was Prince Andrew of Greece and mother, the Princess Alice of Battenberg. That heritage made him a prince of Greece and Denmark BUT 1922 the family was banished from Greece after a coup.. /2

A British warship then carried them to safety in Italy, with baby Philip reportedly dozing in a makeshift fruit crate cot. Today the Italian President said Prince Philip “always showed sincere friendship towards the Italian people” during his visits to their country /3

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Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

22 Mar

Latest YouGov poll suggests in EU ‘Big Four’ - Italy, Spain, Germany, France - more people believe the AstraZeneca jab to be unsafe than safe. A big drop over 2 weeks #covid /1

This follows the recent suspension of the AZ rollout in over 15 European countries as alleged links between the jab and rare blood clots in the brain were examined. The European Medicines Agency has since declared the jab safe. US clinical trials have now suggested the same.. /2

EU leaders are queuing up to say they’d have - or are having - the AZ vaccine in order to try to boost public confidence but it appears a lot of damage has been done AND YET the EU needs the AZ jab as part of its vaccine rollout - already way behind U.K. and US /3

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Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

15 Mar

The EU has started formal legal action against the UK over the government decision to unilaterally delay checks on some goods coming into NIreland from Great Britain. The European Commission accuses the U.K. of breaking international law - the Brexit deal signed by both sides /1

Today the PM said the decision to delay some border checks constituted “temporary and technical measures” which were “very sensible.” Downing Street has said the move was “lawful and necessary” to ensure food continues to flow onto supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland /2

The EU case could lead to a judgment by the European Court of Justice, even though the UK has left the EU. The case is likely to take months or years to process and could result in a fine or sanctions imposed on British goods /3

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Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

4 Mar

EU official dismisses attempts to “try to make the EU look like the bad guys for blocking the export of vaccines from pharma companies that haven’t honoured their contractual obligations with the EU” /1

Defending Italy’s controversial move today to bloc 250,000 AZ vaccines going to Australia, the official said “Zero” AstraZeneca vaccines had been exported to EU from the 2 factories in the U.K. He added that US had a de facto ban on vaccine exports in place but /2

He said the EU allowed many exports of vaccines out of the bloc. He countered my question about whether blocking exports wld damage the EU’s reputation internationally and insisted “other countries” (outside EU) were skilled at glossing over their own de facto export bans /3

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Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

2 Feb

Angela Merkel has just admitted on German public broadcaster ARD that it ‘rankles’ that U.K., US and Israel are vaccinating faster than EU countries but she insisted that nothing went wrong with the bloc’s procurement of vaccines /1

Britain, she said, had given an emergency approval to the Astra Zeneca vaccine within 24 hours but the EU had decided against that because, she said, countries depended on the trust of their citizens /2

Chancellor Merkel said in interview the EU wouldn’t have got more vaccines if it had offered more money to pharmaceutical companies. She said every vaccine is welcome in the EU as long as it’s approved by the European Medicines Agency /3

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Katya Adler

@BBCkatyaadler

2 Feb

On German public broadcaster ARD just now Angela Merkel refused to accept criticism of the EU vaccine approval process. She defended the EU decision to go slower saying it was a matter of trust and attention to detail. She was asked about supply too /1

Whether - if the EU had been willing to pay more - it could have got more jabs and faster. Did national interest play a role she was asked: eg France wanting to favour the Sanofi vaccine? Merkel said no. She focused on the Pfizer vaccine in her answer, saying /2

The US exported virtually none of the Pfizer vaccine it produced so Europe was reliant on its own production plants, she said. She said that these were in the process of being added to /3

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