Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, is facing calls to resign after a botched handling of the vaccine shortage issue. The EU made the mistake of centralising the order for the entire bloc rather than leaving individual countries to proceed at their own pace and were late to the party. Then when the manufacturers plead production problems in shortfalls on delivery she demanded AstraZeneca stop supplying the UK. A deluge of criticism forced her to U-turn.
Her Term chart, 1 December 2019 has an explosive Mars opposition Uranus as well as a limp and impractical Sun square Neptune. Tr Saturn has been squaring the Uranus and then the Mars in February; with tr Uranus having a final opposition to the Mars also in February which leads to high insecurity resulting in macho gestures to prop up self-esteem which often backfire. The fireworks will run on.
Her time as Minister for Defence in Germany was generally regarded as a failure with domestic criticism for her leadership style, reliance on outside consultants, and continued gaps in military readiness. A report for the German Parliament concluded about the military under her administration – “There is neither enough personnel nor material, and often one confronts shortage upon shortage.”
The domestic consensus was that her party would be happy to see her go to Brussels and Merkel was a cheerleader there for her. Politico.eu remarked, “What the rest of Europe gets out of the bargain is another question.”
Born 8 October 1958 in Brussels, with a civil servant then politician father, she qualified as a doctor and has seven children. She has a diplomatic and cool Libra Sun Mercury sextile Saturn in Sagittarius; with a do-or-die-determined Mars square Pluto; and a head-in-the-clouds Neptune Jupiter in Scorpio.
For someone under heavy pressure for a cataclysmic series of mis-steps she has a good deal of upbeat Jupiter sprinkled about through this year, along it would have to be said with some confusion. 2022/23 look more of an uphill struggle with 2024 running both her personal and her EU Admin chart into the buffers.
See previous Posts: July 17 2019 and December 10 2019.
Update: UK spent 7 times more than the EU on vaccine development before knowing that the vaccines were effective.
UK spent £1,67 billion, ie £25 per capita
EU (27 countries) spent £1,57 billion, ie £3,51 per capita
UK signed AstraZeneka contract May 2020 before trials concluded, in order to remove glitches before production.
Just to put things in perspective, the UK government like many, has been widely criticised for its handling of the pandemic, but in this case it put its money where its mouth is. The EU didn’t. Worse than that, it won’t admit it.
German comentator in The Times today (behind a paywall)
Ursula von der Leyen’s mess has disgraced Europe.
‘Von der Leyen started a dispute with the vaccine supplier Astrazeneca, which was supposed to look daredevilish but was just dumb. She has disgraced Europe.’
Der Tagesspiegel, a Berlin daily, said Brussels’s refusal to own up to its mistakes was “jaw-dropping” and “bordered on shamelessness”. Bild accused Von der Leyen of either “lying to the faces of 447 million Europeans” about the bloc’s contract with Astrazeneca or being ignorant of its contents. Die Zeit, a pro-European weekly, described the vaccine debacle as the best present imaginable for Brexiteers, while Der Spiegel said it could turn out to be the “worst catastrophe of [Von der Leyen’s] political career”.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ursula-von-der-leyens-mess-has-disgraced-europe-83vg2q70c
Boris also has a grandad who was a baker in my Northern Town.
I think the EU might end up with countries fighting among each other in the race to get their peoples vaccinated. Covid is nothing we have experienced and when it comes to the fight for survival as we are in unknown waters.
Will EU citizens be so understating of the delay to be vaccinated in the EU? Will this lead to the rise of vaccine Nationalism with EU country’s vying to look after their own.
The NI move was totally out of order after the EU went on about it for so long during Brexit negotiations and has done them no PR good . The UK papers are full of how many vaccines the UK are delivering which will be another blow for the EU.
Mind there is also another a media black out over the French , Dutch and Australian protests. Mmmm interesting times…
Thank you Margriet. My point precisely. Media manipulation of the facts to make ‘us’ look better than ‘them’. Nationalism will not get a pandemic under control.
Indeed, as you say Zita, the dispute is between the EU and Astrazeneca. However, don’t forget that the EU provided advance funding for its plants to be upgraded – including those in the UK on the understanding that some of that production would go to meet the EU’s order. Last week it appeared that all its production was going to the UK despite the EU investment. Ursula suspected foul play by Boris and threw a hissy fit! Not smart, however it tells us a lot about how bad relations are between the UK and the EU and how little trust is left. Indeed blame is not helpful, but cooperation has been made almost impossible by past actions.
@SuHu , My understanding is EU provided financial assistance for the medical plants within the EU(not UK). UK provided for assistance for the UK factories. Correct me if I am wrong.
Ursala said that there is no “best efforts” clause in the contract to supply production from UK factories, but AZ is committed to do it. As you know, a wrong version of the contract was released which showed that such a clause existed.
Whatever EU has been doing last week is to shore up its image with the population which has been complaining about the delay in vaccines. Nothing more, nothing less.
I’m afraid that you are misinformed: the Oxford laboratory and the production facilities received billions in advance from the EU. That explains their frustration.
I may have got the source wrong or incorrect .. Search for “Brexit funding gap for Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine institute” and you will see that the Covid vaccine did not rely on eu funding. I trusted it because it did seem genuine and does say the institute depends on EU funding for other things. I also did not ever hear EU funding in relation with Oxford vaccine.
When Oxford Uni was finalising a deal with an American pharmaceutical and the UK government overruled the deal. If EU had funded the research, I would be surprised if they would have not demanded a say in such things.
Production facilities received billions for the EU plants. yes. Not Oxford research of UK laboratories.
I did follow your suggestion and the Jenner Institute itself states:
“The European Commission has been our largest funder over the past five years”
When did the UK stop paying into the EU? Not that it matters to the delay. These aren’t simple products to produce, if you faff about with the order and haggling the prices forever, you can’t expect that huge order to just suddenly materialise.
As for the media, yes there are some sections of the media like that, but it isn’t read and believed by everyone. The Northern Ireland fiasco hasn’t been widely reported in the European media and I think that is what has shocked people the most here.
It has certainly been widely reported and analysed in the Netherlands.
Well done Dutch media. I know there’s been a lot going on there with the riots and everything, they’d be forgiven for having other concerns. I hope NI stays peaceful too
Riots ended pretty quickly, especially when the local football supporters turned out to support the police in the towns affected! Media influencers also telling youth that ‘it’s not cool’ to loot when shop owners are suffering just as they are! Unfortunately little of the surprising aftermath of the unrest has been reported outside the Netherlands. Real sense of community and recognition that bored youngsters are not freedom fighters!
That’s great about the football fans 🙂 It sounds like the riots we had in London about 10 years ago or so (doesn’t feel like that long!), there was a family business that had been trading since Victorian or Edwardian times – razed to the ground. It’s tough on small businesses at the best of times, but during a pandemic seems extra rough. A little flash of Uranus/Mars I guess, glad it’s all back to normal now
Maigret it also said in that article “Responding to a question from Research Professional News on the impact of Brexit on vaccine development during a Science Media Centre briefing on 20 July, Hill said that while the Covid-19 vaccine did not rely on EU funding, the institute does rely heavily on funding from the European Commission” which is what Sounh said. I’ve never heard of EU funding for the Oxford vaccine either.
@Tara it has been reported in Italy too
Reuters 27 August 2020
“The European Commission has made a 336 million euro ($396 million) downpayment to the *British* drug maker AstraZeneca … The deal covers development, liability and other costs faced by the vaccine maker.”
Reuters, not the continental press
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-vaccine-price-idUSKBN25N25X
And there were more payments than this one alone.
That’s interesting Sarah, a Northern Irish relative living in Italy was one of the ones who told me that they didn’t see much about it, so I assumed it’s not too prominent.
Margriet, the UK government funds Oxford University’s R&D of this vaccine, and other scientific research, to the point that the UK’s expertise is one of the world’s 2 leading nations in this field. It stopped Oxford joining Merck (US) because of fears, especially under President Trump, that in an emergency, supplies would be diverted to the US at the expense of others.
To be crystal clear about the reason for EU’s actions, yesterday The Guardian, an impeccably pro-EU newspaper and who never holds back from criticising the UK, reported that: “the UK, unlike almost every other country neighbouring the bloc (EU) had been left off a list of more than 120 countries exempted from the export controls.”
In fact, the export controls were put in place only during the last few days to stop vaccine exports to Britain specifically, whenever the EU decides.
This is not a friendly or reasonable act.
It certainly misses the whole point of vaccination, in that you do it to protect one another. Whipping it away from one lot to give it to another lot, does not solve the problem.
It is also noticeable that no one seems bothered that the 300 million doses ordered by France will not be delivered because Sanofi has failed in their development. Or that Pfizer and Moderna too cannot deliver on time. Why is the EU not pursing them?
Anyway we’ll have to agree to disagree, won’t we?!
In addition: astrazeneca vaccine produced in Belgium was moved to the UK.
Unfortunately the press in the UK and in many EU countries is whipping up a narrative “we are good and they are bad”.
AZ did not deny that it sent vaccines from EU to UK. But, they were not done with political motive. It is the usual commercial decisions taken by a company. Unfortunately, AZ had problems with the EU plant and that caused delays. Its not just AZ … Pfizer had delays as well … And Moderna too …
What happened with EU’s response was purely driven by political considerations – when the EU population started getting frustrated with their politicians, they put pressure on the Commission .. And Commission to cover up its bureocratic (not saying in a negative sense) delays, responded as it did
Even the staunchly pro-EU and anti-Conservative , who say EU good and UK bad for most things, said UK good and EU bad this time. So, I do not see a joint conspiracy by the UK press to paint EU as bad.
I meant staunchly pro-EU and anti-Conservative media – Independent and Guardian
@Sounh – don’t forget Tony Blair! Nearly fell off my chair reading his take on it!
True, the UK was invited to join the EU purchasing group in June 2020, but it declined because from 31 January 2020, it was no longer a member.
Already in February 2020, the UK government were working with Pharma companies across the world, on many levels, including research, premises, delivery, production.
In June 2020, it ordered large quantities of vaccines from several different companies from across the world.
It didn’t haggle. The Oxford-AstraZeneka (Swedish/UK) is sold at cost (no profit) to everyone, with the British government’s consent.
It will continue to be sold at cost to poorer countries in perpetuity. The University is currently developing variations to counteract the mutations.
The UK is also the 2nd highest contributor to the WHO Covid fund.
The EU dispute was with AstraZeneka, the company, not the UK government. AZ followed Pfizer’s (US/German) earlier announcement off delays due to production difficulties in their Belgian plant.
Pfizer’s vaccine sells for $36+ as opposed to around $1.50 per AstraZeneka dose.
Moderna have since announced similar delays in Italy meaning production has halted there too.
Apparently this often occurs because vaccines are tricky to produce. Last month, UK engineers were sent to help out at vaccine plants in Holland.
The EU responded by accusing the UK of stealing vaccines destined for elsewhere. They imposed some unusual regs to stop exports of vaccines to outside the EU, which still stand, and invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
As this meant imposing a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, it united the US, Ireland and UK in opposition. The EU backed down.
They also backed down on not sending Pfizer vaccines paid for in full by the British government.
It seems strange that the UK which allowed Oxford University, who developed the vaccine, to sell it at cost, should be so maligned and attacked.
It not a UK Brexit issue.
However, it may be an EU one, because of the inability of the Union’s member states to vaccinate their populations.
Naturally, under the onslaught of their irate populations, they have turned on the EU Commission.
By last Friday, thé UK had vaccinated 13.05% of their population, Germany 2.77%, France 1.99%.
The EU authorised the use of the AstraZeneka vaccine only on Friday, and having ordered their vaccines 3 months later than the UK, it’s hardly surprising that their figures are lower. That they are that low is for the 26 member states and the EU Commission to explain.
Hungary dropped out of the EU vaccine procurement scheme because of the delays. They have purchased one batch from Russia and another from China.
What is really sad is that all this politicking is not helping to protect people. While this continues, deaths are mounting, alongside bankruptcies, job losses and mountains of debt. We can all do better than this. The blame game will go on, but at least we should get our facts straight first.
Btw, UK starting vaccinating (Pfizer) on 8 December 2020. It’s just as well because of the appalling number of deaths.
EU authorised use of Pfizer, their first approval, on 21 December 2020.
An excellent and fair account, thank you. The bloc was meant to show it’s strength, but instead looked weaker by it’s lack of agility, and that wouldn’t do. Invoking article 16 was an extremely low move and even though it has been reversed, just the threat has probably caused a lot of damage. Let’s not forget either that everyone born on the island of Ireland, whether they have British citizenship or not, remains an EU citizen, so it is aggressive and reckless towards people who they are supposed to protect as their own – it’s not a good look.
As I understood it, the reason for pooling the EU vaccine order was to avoid member states competing against one another for vaccines as happened with the sourcing of PPE where countries ended up in bidding wars against each other. By deciding not to join the EU group order Boris indeed got off to a head start but at the same time threw a spanner in the works, creating the very situation that von der Leyen wanted to prevent. She overreacted, but she also climbed down pretty quickly. He is using the situation as a stick to beat the EU with and to prove to the British public that Brexit really is worthwhile after all. It’s actually quite shocking, playing politics with people’s lives while claiming to be ‘the best of friends’ with the EU. Von der Leyen clearly doesn’t trust him and perhaps with good reason. But she definitely overreacted. New vaccines are coming on the market so hopefully it will all blow over before too long. I have no doubt she will have other challenges to face in the coming months.
I suppose looking at the other side, and believe me I’m no Brexiter, it’s difficult to include Britain in things just where it is convenient to the EU. If Britain had have ended up with vaccine delays because of a centralised EU procurement and approval process, after all the disadvantage of Brexit, I think Boris Johnson might have been in even more serious trouble than he already has.
According to an article in the BMJ yesterday, the EU seems to have spent much time on driving down the price. The UK really didn’t have time to waste, with a much higher amount of deaths and the virus spreading much faster. The UK is very crowded, interconnected country, which would put it at a disadvantage in a pandemic, even with a competent government. Could any delay be justified?
The EU countries are very careful in allowing new medication. Can you imagine what would have happened when a “rushed through” procedure in the UK would have resulted in severe secondary effects? For the persons involved and trust in vaccination? Suhu and solaia: thanks for the thoughtful remarks.
Britain (MHRA) was also very careful, just because a process is made more efficient in special circumstances it doesn’t mean that it is lacking or any corners were cut. The process was made into a sort of “rolling review” instead of waiting to do absolutely everything at the end of each trial phase. It’s something that has been done in business in product development (particularly software and tech) for many years, those of us familiar with agile business practices aren’t surprised at all.
This has reflected my experience in the past of working with European and British teams, I think I spoke about this here before on a thread somewhere. British teams will be highly adaptable and flexible on one-off projects, in a way that other working cultures in Europe seemed to struggle with. However, it’s the one-off factor that seems to make the difference, it would be by no means consistent other a prolonged period. But a special circumstances, one-off project or emergency, where there was a vision and big picture to work to, they just seemed to be more creative and flexible in pulling it off. The German teams seemed to get bogged down in perfecting details and small change, the French would over complicate things and egos would clash.
We had our differences, but together we seemed to balance each other out. I learned a lot from German practices about minimising wastage and getting the best from something. But there is a time and a place for everything.
@tara, from my own experience, I have to say there aren’t that big differences in corporate culture anymore. This seems to be true for “Big Pharma”, as well. For instance, Pfizer is an American based company. Their CEO Albert Bourla is of Greek origin. Vaccine development happened in Germany, production is in at least three continents. AstroZeneca is Swedish-British. Their Chairman of Board is Swedish and CEO French (with a big ego, I suppose ;-)). They bought licence to vaccine developed with an UK Government subsidied study in Oxford. Vaccine is produced in Britain and EU. So, I don’t think differences in research and production here can be explained by national cultural differences. Maybe there are differences in corporate culture, but essentially, corporate heads making the culture tend to come from same schools, read the same text books, have the same outlook independently of their nationality.
If there are any differences in vaccine roll out, they come from National Legislation. For instance, Germany is now decided to postpone AstroZeneca vaccine rollout among population over 65, because apparently AstroZeneca trial had an insufficient number of subjects over 65 to determine vaccine efficacy. Many other countries have decided to overlook this, even in the EU.
@Solaia, sorry, I think my reply to you may not go below your post. I appreciate your experience and agree to a certain extent that cultural differences have become less over time post-globalisation, particularly from Gen X workers onwards. I know exactly what you are saying about big corporates comprising all different nationalities, I have had French, Swedish and Italian bosses myself. I grew up in London where over 300 languages are spoken; worked for American, Dutch, Japanese and French companies and have worked in London with colleagues from all over the world.
Nevertheless it is my experience and that of those who I have worked with in the past, that there remain cultural differences in working practices, each with strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think it always does us any favours to pretend that they don’t exist and everything is the same out of fear of descending into stereotypes. Indeed, it doesn’t matter where someone is born, they quickly become part of the culture. Part of the differences in working culture are due to unique local factors in those countries. Part of my job for a big corporate was to make everything uniform across Europe, and let me tell you it was hard work! In many cases it is just not desirable or effective.
Of course, there are pluses and minuses. I was never massively pressured in France or Germany to go out on a Thursday night binge drinking to be “one of the team” for example, like I have been countless times in the UK. There are definitely differences
I’ve lived in France for almost two decades and it used to drive me spare what the French did even with big international websites. The French version was hopeless, never worked as well. Their insistence on putting their stamp on them made them worse. That problem is slowly receding and the new French health websites, for instance, for booking doctor/dentist/vaxx appointments are sublimely simple and user friendly. So maybe everyone is learning to pull together more sensibly.
@Solaia, True that the cultural differences at work have reduced substantially in the last decade or so.
But not sure if the cultural differences in governments and government sector has changed as much. They are always slow to change. In commericial sector, you adopt or you loose out.
Yes, pleasing different consumers or different voters, with their own different values naturally influences the way that you work insofar as what you prioritise. I suppose I was wondering if the rationale and values that influenced the EU procurement process were easier to sell to German voters than others, as it really reminded me of what seems to go down well there – the price and the slow, methodical, trusted box-ticking QA methods. The stakeholder paying the most will ultimately have the biggest influence, but it’s not always the best way to go.
@Marjorie, that is good to know, there has always been a great amount of talent in France.
Tara, having worked in the Netherlands for 2 years, I totally agree with you. Reliability, dependability, meticulous in spades, but flexibility, innovation, imagination not so much. I’ve also worked in other countries and now live in France. I endorse Marjorie’s experience there too!
I think the British get bored easily, but a bit of drama like a crisis, perks them up no end, so they jump to and do whatever it takes. The 3-day working week in the 70’s (??) proves the point. Productivity soared despite the dramatic cut back in working hours.
But it’s the differences that make life fun, isn’t it?!
Haha you are right Zita. My own theory is that maybe the unpredictable British weather has something to do with it. When you get a good, sunny day out of the blue – you really go for it! Suddenly, out of nowhere there is a BBQ happening with 50 people in the garden. Or 100’s of picnics taking place in the park. Because these things are so unpredictable and can’t be taken for granted, and you must be ready to seize them. Ready to drop everything else and adapt your plans. It’s not like Italy or the South of France where you could plan a garden party perhaps a month or two in advance. I think we are trained like this from childhood 😉
To make a sensible statement, which is a slight criticism of EU, you don’t have to be a Brexiter. You can be very pro EU and very critical of EU at the same time.
Thank you, this is very true. It’s a sad sign of the polarised times when it’s felt that it needs to be said.
“As I understood it, the reason for pooling the EU vaccine order was to avoid member states competing against one another for vaccines as happened with the sourcing of PPE where countries ended up in bidding wars against each other.”
This is absolutely correct. The choice to concentrate on lowering the price was made to accommodate less affluent countries in the Union.
That said, it didn’t go as planned, and people panicked, on all fronts. It might have helped to notice that vaccines alone are not the answer for months. Israel has vaccinated 30 per cent of their population, but had record levels of contagion until a week ago. They have not still lifted restrictions.
I am surprised that even in an article about EU’s serious diplomaic missteps and vaccine nationalism (even Trump would be put his head down in shame that he hasn’t managed like eu), there is still a criticism on Boris Johnson.
Boris has botched in a number of areas, but has managed(may be by chance) to be ahead on vaccination. If not appreciated, should not be criticised atleast. The real results, is wait and see.
With vaccination, EU has been behind the curve right from start.
It’s is shocking that EU which promotes itself as a torch bearer of rule of law and has been taking such a keen interest in keeping peace in NI, acted the way it has over the last week.
As for the slower approval, totally agree it is important to be safe than sorry.
Sorry, wasn’t meant to be a reply for Solaris.
In a briefing over the weekend, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the director of public health services, said that out of 715,425 Israelis who received the second dose more than a week ago, only 317 have caught the virus, or 0.04 percent, and only 16 required hospitalization.
@Marjorie, yes, it’s vital people get the second shot. I think this is now happening in Israel. However, 70 per cent of population has yet to receive the vaccine, and herd immunity via vaccine is thought to happen no sooner than when at least 60 per cent of population is vaccinated twice with a vaccine that has over 90 per cent efficacy. This will lead to parts of population still being extremely vulnerable to community spread. It’s said Israel has blocked vaccinations among Palestinian communities, for instance.
Also, I think that with a two phase vaccine, we should start reporting numbers on vaccination program completed. There are countries which, currently, seem to be falling behind, because the strategy has been to complete vaccination of health care personal and most vulnerable population – elderly people in care – first. The theory is this will drive hospitalization and death rate down faster than getting, for instance, getting a partial coverage sooner.
Yes I think probably too much emphasis was given to what each country could afford financially and not enough emphasis on the fact that certain countries couldn’t afford the extra time. There was a failure to see the big picture.
@suhu there are reports that UK was planning to join the European effort to procure vaccination. Allegedly, the conditions EU placed were not acceptable – uk will have nosay in the negotiations or decisions in procurement process and UK will be barred for buying additional does etc.
If these reports are true, it feels like eu has been playing political games then, and clearly last week.
Honestly, SuHu, I don’t think the EU Commission has a leg to stand on. Their contract was not strong enough. Understandings are not good enough.
The UK’s contract explicitly obliged AstraZeneka to deliver to them first.
The EU’s contract had the lesser obligation of “best reasonable efforts” to cover the company if there were delays.
Their plant in Belgium was set up specifically to provide the EU with vaccines.
The UK had time to iron out problems in their plants prior to delivery.
The EU only authorised the AstraZeneka vaccine last Friday, so couldn’t have done anything with it earlier anyway.
They were spooked by AstraZeneka’s announcement of delays, following hard on Pfizer’s announcement of delays at their Belgian plant a few days earlier.
By this time the Commission was under attack, especially from the German press.
Ironic, when you consider Angela Merkel promoted the idea in the first place.
In June 2020, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands actually stopped going ahead with orders on their own account.
Even more ironic is the fact that Germany subsequently unilaterally bought two more batches in secret in addition to the EU order.
A fiasco on all levels.
The fact is, the UK, for once, handled this side of things well, from contract to vaccinations. The EU didn’t, so it tried to shift the blame.
Totally agree that it shows bad feeling and lack of trust. Let’s hope this acts as a brake on future knee jerk reactions. But this has really been an eye opener, on all sorts of levels.
Sorry. Don’t know what happened but for what it’s worth, this post is in response to that of SuHu 31/1/21 at 11.45 am
And my post of 31/1/21 at 4.12 am below, is in answer to SuHu 30/1/21 at 6.36 pm
I normally enjoy reading the comments but l call it a day!!If l fail to understand , what an earth has been achieved by the comments written regarding Eu/ U.K. by star4cast readers! If that is all you can offer for debate, when we should all be reaching out to each other in a time crisis.How will we overcome the predice , the indoctrination of. Religious political manipulation. Most living creatures including us, need love, food and warmth . We need to think out side of the box and very quickly change our ways, for a better world.
Zita, The ‘best efforts’ only applied before there was a vaccine, not to the deliveries. Large parts of the contract have been made public now. There was no agreement that the UK would ‘go first’ only, as you say, they signed up sooner and had the benefit of that. The suspicion that the EU order had been diverted to the UK must have come from somewhere! Ursula’s overreaction was uncalled for, but must have been provoked by something underhanded and not just the EU’s tardy response borne out of the need to get all eyes facing front. There’s no smoke without fire, IMO!But I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree, Zita. I am only trying to balance the argument here.
@SuHu
” The suspicion that the EU order had been diverted to the UK must have come from somewhere!”
Fair enough and this suspicion has been debunked by the raid of AZ offices and factories in Belgium.
Even if AZ had diverted to UK, why is UK government being blamed for that. It is AZ’s commricial decision (unless it is reasonable to believe that UK government malignantly was behind such as move).
It was just a face saving exercise for the last few days by the EU.
Actually, the UK government didn’t respond, AstraZeneka did. It was only when the EU invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, that they did so alongside the Irish government.
This was an EU Commission crisis, under the personal leadership of Ursula van den Leyen. They panicked.
I know Ursula von der Leyen has been a somewhat controversial public figure for years. I remember a few years ago when the Hanover Medical School investigated claims of plagiarism in Leyen’s doctoral thesis. If I remember correctly, she almost lost her medical degree over this.
Ironically, back in November 2014, I discovered though our a genealogist my family hired, that I am actually related to Ursula von der Leyen via my Mother’s side of the family. I’ve mentioned in the past that while my Father is Andalusian Spaniard, Canary Islander, and Sephardi Jewish (Converso), my Mother is Anglo-American with significant “blue blood” ancestry.
Apparently, Ursula von der Leyen and I are related to some prominent Colonial-American / British ancestors she and my Mother share. My maternal great-great grandparents were from Barbados (great-great grandmother who was of English and Welsh descent) and Bermuda (great-great grandfather was of Scottish descent) and they settled in Baltimore, Maryland at the beginning of the 20th century were they met and married.
Ursula von der Leyen had also English ancestors who settled in Barbados, Virginia, and South Carolina. She and my Mother’s side of the family are both descended from the prominent Ladson Family of South Carolina. I believe, but I can’t say for sure, that Ursula von der Leyen is related to my Mother and I through the Taliaferro Family (which is one of the Founding Families of Virginia, whom my Mother shares direct heritage with).
Anyway, just thought it would be interesting to share that.
Interesting Chris. It’s funny, Macron has English ancestry too, I think. The EU leaders are probably all more much English than Boris, ironically
What fascinating ancestry, Chris.
Chris, what an interesting story about your ancestry. Family history is amazing in the way it often seems to link us up across the world. The stories our DNA could tell, as well as our genealogy. Should really bring everyone closer…..And yes, Macron’s great grandfather was British, from Bristol.
All I recall about Boris from that Who Do You Think You Are programme is Turkish, and some Hanoverian royalty, on what they used to call “the wrong side of the blanket”. So, like David Cameron, he is distantly related to the Queen, and indeed to Cameron himself – another illegitimate descendant of royalty (King William 4th)….there must be thousands of them out there!