It was not until the autumn that the EU placed orders for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - In a meeting last week in the Europa building in Brussels, home of the European Union’s political leadership, diplomats for the 27 member states were desperate.
The EU had paid billions of euros toward shots to curb a pandemic that was killing thousands of Europeans every day. Now vaccine-makers had cut back deliveries, and the EU was trapped in a public fight.
“This is a catastrophe,” French ambassador Philippe Leglise-Costa told the Jan. 27 meeting, according to a diplomatic note seen by Reuters.
It was a crucial moment in nearly two weeks of confusion and anger over the EU’s vaccine supply, which were to plunge the bloc into its deepest crisis since Ursula von der Leyen took over the executive European Commission just over a year ago.
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Update: EU Covid incompetence leaves governments wanting vaccines, not excuses (Larry Elliott, The Guardian).
WNU Editor: The difference between the UK vaccine rollout and the EU's is night and day. But at least some EU leaders are admitting that they screwed up .... EU chief admits COVID vaccine blunders (DW). And some are not .... EU circles wagons against Covid vaccine rollout criticism (Financial Times).
Update: The video below is one example on how France missed a golden opportunity to obtain Covid vaccines.
