Reuters Reuters
6 February, 2021, 7:10 pm
Syringes and a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are seen at the elderly home Ballesol, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Madrid, Spain January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Susana Vera
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.
AstraZeneca told the EU in December that supplies of its vaccine would be cut, but ministers still made big promises about the speed of the roll-out before going in search of scape-goats when it all fell apart.
This Reuters report is based on exclusive details of internal EU talks over the past month in diplomatic notes, and interviews of four people present at key meetings to verify them.
Channels Television
Updated December 19, 2020
(FILES) In this file photograph taken on January 29, 2020, British members of the European Parliament from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats pose for a group picture wearing scarves depicting the European Union and the Union Jack flags at The Europa Building in Brussels. – EU chief Ursula von der Leyen declared October 1, 2020, that Brussels is taking legal action over the British government’s attempt to overturn parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP)
Britain has not yet installed all the complex IT systems and port infrastructure needed to ensure Brexit runs smoothly, a group of British MPs warned in a report released Saturday.