France is furious at the EU’s vaccine bungle

Ursula von der Leyen has clung to an increasingly implausible narrative this week: that the EU made the ‘right decision’ with its vaccine strategy. It’s the clearest sign yet that Brussels is going into panic mode.

The Commission president is reported to have turned down requests to hold a public debate in the European parliament on the vaccine roll-out. Von der Leyen decided to only answer questions behind from a select group of MEPs behind closed doors. Finally, left without much choice the Commission president seems to have grudgingly accepted to appear before the European Parliament on Wednesday. The Commission feels increasingly cornered, and rightly so, for the EU’s vaccine struggle may well turn into an existential crisis.

The EU first responded to the vaccine crisis by lashing out, cracking down on AstraZeneca, imposing export controls and even threatening to introduce a hard border on Ireland. Now it appears to be in denial. In an interview, von der Leyen suggested that the UK has compromised on vaccine ‘safety and efficacy’.