Things went seriously wrong this past week at European Commission With vaccines. The commission was working on a transparency mechanism, but the mechanism included border controls on the Irish border and a national selection to export vaccines to non-EU countries or not. The United Kingdom immediately responded with indignation. But the European Commission now admits to making a mistake. Ursula von der Leyen responded “Only the Pope is infallible.” It was nothing more than a human error. Now the commission wants to correct mistakes.
Until the end of March, pharmaceutical companies must request permission from national governments to export coronavirus vaccines. However, these authorities must take into account the binding advice of the European Commission; This means that it is up to the government to make the decision, unless the Commission decides otherwise.
However, the timing of this new mechanism was “very accidental”. Indeed, tensions have risen sharply with AstraZenica over exports to the UK, but links between the two cases are rejected.
Not only the UK needed. And all alarm bells went off in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Brexit agreement between Ireland and the United Kingdom contains a very sensitive article that allows the European Union to implement unilateral border controls on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in exceptional circumstances.
Neither Irish people see this, and the United Kingdom has vehemently protested. So it is clear that the material is very sensitive, but the UNHCR wanted to demand it, fearing that the borders would become a back gateway for exporting vaccines.
