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 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.
A week earlier, the EU had set a target to vaccinate 70% of adults
against COVID-19 by the end of summer, a potential ticket out of
lockdowns that have cost countries billions. As the impact of the
vaccine shortfall became clear, the bloc embarked on a campaign to
shame drugmakers hit by production delays into releasing more
supply.
But the tactic wasn't working and details of confidential deals were
leaking out, casting doubt on the EU's ability to enforce contracts
it had agreed on behalf of its members.
Reuters has obtained exclusive details of internal EU talks over the
past month in diplomatic notes, and interviewed four people present
at key meetings to verify them. The notes reveal how the EU's top
executives lurched from satisfaction about the vaccination programme
to panic.
Some EU officials were already aware in December of delays in
vaccine production, the notes show, but the Commission announced
ambitious targets nonetheless. The EU initially kept no track of
companies' vaccine doses leaving the bloc, only realising after its
own supplies were delayed it could not trace the millions of doses
that had already been exported. And as its attempts to win ground by
legal means failed, the Commission faced sharp attacks from EU
governments on its public communication strategy.
In a pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people in Europe alone,
the delays announced by the companies producing coronavirus vaccines
- AstraZeneca PLC and Pfizer Inc. - risked leaving millions in
Europe unprotected deep in the winter, just as new, more
transmissible, variants were circulating and hospitals were being
overwhelmed. Vaccination centres from Madrid to Paris had closed for
lack of supply.
The EU Commission declined comment for this story. So did
AstraZeneca, which has said it is focused on boosting supplies to
the bloc after the manufacturing glitches. The Commission has often
said it expects an exponential increase in the availability of
vaccines from April. Pfizer's Chief Executive Albert Bourla told
Reuters production is back on track in Europe after the company made
changes at its Belgian manufacturing site to increase supply.
The vaccine squeeze was not just a public health nightmare. It was
also a political crisis.
Britain, freshly divorced from the EU's single market after five
years of bitter negotiations, was inoculating people at a much
faster pace than any EU country, public data show.
Diplomats feared the Commission was losing the battle against a
"narrative of ... big failure," a senior EU diplomat who was present
at the Jan. 27 meeting told Reuters. They urged the Commission to
cool a row with British company AstraZeneca for the sake of getting
drugs as soon as possible, the notes show and people present said.
The Commission's dilemma underscores the power of big drugmakers as
governments scramble to vaccinate their citizens, and the
geopolitical tensions that can result.
Eventually, the notes show EU diplomats recognised the bloc may not
benefit from arguing about contracts with AstraZeneca. Instead, the
Commission turned up the heat on the United Kingdom - which
AstraZeneca said was preventing British-made vaccines from reaching
Europe - only to swiftly step back after realising it risked
disrupting a border agreement in the Brexit accord which London and
Dublin said could have serious consequences for security in Northern
Ireland.
The damage to the EU's image was visible on the front pages of
Britain's eurosceptic popular press, with headlines declaring "EU
vaccines war explodes" and "EU chiefs behaving like the mafia."
A spokesman for the French ambassador said he had urged the EU "to
communicate in an orderly and strategic manner."
A British government spokesperson said, "We are in constant contact
with the vaccine manufacturers and remain confident that the supply
of vaccine to the UK will not be disrupted." The UK government
declined to comment on AstraZeneca's claim it was preventing
vaccines from reaching Europe, but said it does not prohibit any
export of COVID-19 vaccines.
"GLITCH-FREE"
The month started calmly for member states, who had agreed at the
start of the pandemic to form a steering group with the EU executive
to negotiate with drugmakers, to support smaller states and prevent
internal squabbling.
EU Commission officials and diplomats involved met in the Europa
Building's S7 Room, a windowless chamber where delegates assembled
at a round table beneath a ceiling decorated with dozens of squares
in pastel colours. The Commission was represented by the EU's top
vaccine negotiator, Sandra Gallina, an Italian national who started
working for the EU Commission more than three decades ago as an
interpreter. She declined to comment for this story.
The EU was about three weeks behind Britain in launching a vaccine -
largely because it opted against issuing emergency regulatory
approval as Britain had done. But the EU had announced deals with
six vaccine-makers to secure nearly 2.3 billion doses for its
population of 450 million.
Pfizer, working with German partner BioNTech, was one of only two
firms whose shots had approval. It was the only one supplying the EU,
which had announced deals for up to 600 million Pfizer doses. The
roll-out began immediately after Christmas.
"Deliveries are so far mostly glitch-free," Gallina told diplomats
in a Jan. 8 briefing, according to a note from the meeting.
Gallina told the briefing the EU was receiving 3.5 million doses of
the Pfizer vaccine a week. She underscored that the UK, by contrast,
had reserved only 4 million doses of the Pfizer shot until February.
Pfizer declined to comment, saying delivery schedules are
confidential.
Gallina told diplomats some countries were passing on their share of
Pfizer doses in anticipation of securing drugs from AstraZeneca,
which was due to launch deliveries to the EU once its vaccine won
regulatory approval there in late January. Both companies' vaccines
are made and exported from plants a short drive from Brussels.
AstraZeneca also makes vaccines for the EU at factories in Germany
and Britain, according to the EU Commission.
Gallina told the meeting member states saw AstraZeneca as a "star"
for its low prices and big numbers.
The companies have declined to comment on prices; AstraZeneca's
vaccine costs about 2.5 euros ($3) per dose, against 15.5 euros for
Pfizer's, two EU negotiators directly involved in talks with vaccine
makers told Reuters. AstraZeneca committed to deliver at least 80
million doses through March, or up to 120 million, an official
involved in the talks told Reuters.
EU negotiators were aware AstraZeneca was scaling back its planned
supply because of production problems. The company had told the EU's
steering group on Dec. 4 that it would reduce its targets for the
first quarter to two-thirds of the 120 million maximum, according to
a diplomatic note.
[to top of second column] |
 At a public hearing on Jan. 12
in the European Parliament, Gallina told EU
lawmakers that she had heard only three
instances of "relatively minor" complaints about
deliveries.
REALITY CHECK
Three days later, on Jan. 15, Pfizer too said it
had trimmed production and would temporarily cut
supplies to the EU from its Belgian plant. There
was an immediate public outcry across Europe.
Italy's special commissioner for COVID-19,
Domenico Arcuri, said Italy was considering
legal action against Pfizer.
Despite these delays, the EU Commission went
ahead and announced an ambitious vaccination
goal. On Jan. 19, when just over
5 million vaccines had been administered in the EU, the Commission
published targets to inoculate at least 80% of health workers and
the elderly above the age of 80 by March, and 70% of the EU's adult
population by the end of the summer. It also proposed a way to
donate excess doses to poorer countries.
The next day in the S7 Room briefing, EU diplomats told Commission
officials those goals were too bold.
"We have only about 2% vaccinated. How did you come up with the 70%
target?" a representative from Lithuania asked. "We prefer to
under-promise and over-deliver," the Dutch delegate said. A
spokesman for the Dutch ambassador confirmed the Netherlands had
raised concerns about the ambition in the Commission proposal. A
spokeswoman for the Lithuanian ambassador declined to comment.
Three days later, the notes showed Gallina telling diplomats that
Pfizer's sudden cut had "savaged" member states' vaccination plans.
But she reassured them shipments would resume the following week.
"SHOCKED"
Worse was to come. On Friday Jan. 22, AstraZeneca, due to start EU
deliveries on Feb. 15, said it would cut supplies further over the
first three months. A senior official involved in the talks told
Reuters this would mean a roughly 60% fall - to 31 million doses
instead of 80 million.
The European Commission went on the offensive. A few hours after the
announcement, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides tweeted about
her "deep dissatisfaction." The following Monday the Commission
summoned AstraZeneca's executives to meetings to pressure the
company to lift deliveries.
The Commission won concessions - AstraZeneca sweetened its offer to
add 8 million doses from an earlier date of Feb. 7.
It was not enough. Aware of production problems at AstraZeneca's
Belgian site, the EU Commission asked for drugs from Germany and
Britain. But AstraZeneca offered no clarity on whether doses could
be diverted from Britain, an EU official who attended the meeting
said.
The next day, the company's Chief Executive Pascal Soriot told
European newspapers AstraZeneca was not legally required to deliver
doses to the EU on a precise timeline, because its contract only
stated it would make its "best efforts" to deliver.
He also said Britain had signed up for its vaccine earlier than the
EU and had asked to be served first from UK-based plants. The UK
government declined to comment.
Soriot's remarks infuriated the EU Commission. On Jan. 27, according
to the notes, Gallina told diplomats she was "shocked" by "the level
of incorrect statements" that she said Soriot had made about
AstraZeneca's commitments. AstraZeneca declined to comment.
The Commission, saying it was confident of the strength of its legal
arguments, publicly demanded AstraZeneca publish the contract they
had agreed. A heavily redacted version was eventually made public on
Jan. 29.
"BACK AGAINST THE WALL"
At the Jan. 27 meeting, Gallina told delegates around the S7 Room
table that some of the problems with AstraZeneca had already been
known, but the new cut was "a big blow."
She also said the EU had no breakdown of who was exporting vaccines
where. "We have some information but we need more," she said.
Rough customs data showed millions of COVID-19 vaccines had been
exported in past weeks from the EU to Britain, Canada, Israel and
China, she said. The EU Commission did not respond to a request for
export data. Britain, Israel and Canada have said they received
Pfizer's vaccines from the EU; Britain has also said it received
AstraZeneca's vaccine from the EU. Fosun, the China-based company
which has exclusive rights to sell Pfizer's vaccine in China and
Hong Kong, had no comment.
Gallina added the EU would set up a new mechanism to track and
licence exports. The EU's lawyers could use several legal arguments
to pressure AstraZeneca into releasing more doses, she added.
The briefing did not go well. At least five diplomats told the
meeting the Commission had pushed too far in its public fight and
urged it to calm the dispute, at least privately. Legal action would
not produce more vaccines quickly, they said.
"The Commission has its back against the wall," French ambassador
Leglise-Costa told the meeting, according to the notes. He urged an
immediate change in the communication strategy.
Later that day, on another call with the Commission, Soriot told the
EU not to expect doses from AstraZeneca's factories in Britain
because London was using a clause in its contract that gave it
priority over doses made in the United Kingdom, two EU officials
told Reuters.
"ACT OF HOSTILITY"
Seeing that diplomats wanted to tone down the fight with AstraZeneca,
the Commission set its sights on Britain's government.
The next day, EU officials publicly threatened to block vaccine
exports - a move likely to hit Britain's imports of vaccines from
Pfizer's Belgian plant. And the Commission said it wanted to set up
a mechanism that would require companies to seek authorisation
before exporting vaccine doses.
On Friday Jan. 30, it took a further step, threatening to trigger a
clause that would block vaccines from reaching Northern Ireland - a
British-run province that remained part of the EU internal market
after the Brexit divorce.
Imposing restrictions on that border was potentially explosive: The
Brexit talks had agreed to keep it open, to preserve the central
plank of a 1998 peace deal ending 30 years of armed conflict in the
province.
Northern Ireland's First Minister Arlene Foster called the EU
proposal "an incredible act of hostility," and EU officials soon
admitted it was excessive.
By Sunday, the Commission had retreated on both fronts.
Commission President Von der Leyen announced in a tweet the bloc had
achieved a "step forward on vaccines." AstraZeneca had offered to
increase deliveries, she said.
After a week of fighting and diplomatic confusion, the EU had
secured just 1 million doses more than the firm's initial sweetened
offer, her tweet revealed.
(Additional reporting from Michael Erman in New York, Emilio Parodi
in Milan, Giselda Vagnoni in Rome, Maria Sheahan in Berlin, Ludwig
Burger in Frankfurt, Steve Scheer in Jerusalem, Costas Pitas and
Alistair Smout in London, Roxanne Liu in Beijing, Miyoung Kim in
Seoul; Edited by Sara Ledwith and Michele Gershberg)
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