The EU’s vaccine crisis continues after the bloc was accused of failing to secure enough vaccine supply quickly enough. Newspapers across Europe blasted the European Commission for its bureaucratic and centralised response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, Brussels say they have come to an agreement with vaccine manufacturer AstraZeneca securing 40 million jabs by the end of March, though this number is still lower than the original 80 million vaccines agreed last year.
Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, took control of the bloc’s vaccine supplies last year away from member state’s, which caused delays in signing deals with vaccine makers. The EU signed a deal with AstraZeneca 3 months after the UK, which the company says has meant supply problems as there has been less time to fix issues in the EU’s supply chain compared to Britain.
Brussels has vaccinated just 2% of the EU’s population, compared to over 11% in the UK. Last week von der Leyen threatened to block exports of vaccines to the UK, and imposed Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, which would have created a hard border in Northern Ireland to prevent vaccines crossing the border from the EU into the UK. The order was swiftly withdrawn after the EU faced a furious backlash from both the UK and Ireland, of which neither was informed of the move before Article 16 was triggered.
Read more: Brexit news latest – EU humiliated by vaccine crisis as Europe’s papers BLAST threat to UK as ‘best advert for Brexit’ - [ Ссылка ]
From Brexit breaking news to HD movie trailers, The Sun newspaper brings you the latest news videos and explainers from the UK and around the world.
Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know
Read The Sun: [ Ссылка ]
Like The Sun on Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Follow The Sun on Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Subscribe to The Sun on Snapchat: [ Ссылка ]
