European Commission - Page 6

KRANJ, Slovenia (AP) – Tiny Slovenia took charge of the world’s largest trading bloc this week, and immediately shone a harsh spotlight on one of the European Union’s most vexing problems: How to accommodate increasingly vocal member countries with very different visions of Europe’s future.

Trade talks between the European Union and Switzerland have collapsed as a result of Brussels’ demands to include aspects of its Free Movement migration regime in the deal.

Ambassadors from member states of the European Union have backed a proposal to allow international travellers to enter Europe under the proviso that they are fully vaccinated.

The European Union has apparently suspended efforts to ratify a trade deal with Communist China following a series of tit-for-tat sanctions.

ROME (AP) — Turkey demanded an apology Friday from Italy’s premier for having called President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “dictator,” a comment that added fuel to a dispute over a perceived seating snub involving a top European Union official.

Turkey strongly rejected accusations that it snubbed one of the EU´s most powerful executives because of her gender.

(AFP) — Australia’s prime minister on Wednesday blamed restricted vaccine supply from Europe for his country’s halting coronavirus inoculation efforts, as he faced growing public frustration over the sluggish rollout.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the British contract with AstraZeneca is stronger than the EU’s and “trumps” the bloc’s agreement. The minister made the remarks as Brussels threatens to block shipments of British-bought coronavirus vaccines.

BRUSSELS (AP) – A leading European Union official has lashed out at the AstraZeneca vaccine company for its massive shortfall in producing doses for the 27-nation bloc, and threatened that any shots produced by them in the EU could be forced to stay there.

The United Kingdom will have “no choice” but to block deliveries coronavirus vaccine raw materials to the European Union if the bloc follows through with its threats to ban the export of vaccines promised to Britain, a senior government official told a British newspaper.

The European Union is launching legal action against the United Kingdom over its efforts to protect trade between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, vindicating critics of Boris Johnson’s deals with the bloc who said they ensured Brexit was by no means “done”.

Members of the European Parliament are welcoming plans from the European Commission to make email, messaging, and chat providers search through users’ private conversations and report “illegal material”, according to Patrick Breyer MEP.

The EU was forced to admit that the United Kingdom had not imposed a vaccine export ban, after earlier accusing the British government of blocking exports.

Vaccine passport proponent and ardent Remainer Tony Blair has blamed Brexit for the EU’s vaccine woes, claiming that had not Britain left, the bloc would not be “ten weeks behind” in inoculating hundreds of millions of people.

Brexit Britain has helped Australia source vaccines after the European Union backed Italy’s seizure of doses bound for Down Under. 

The European Commission plans to ask the United States to allow the export of millions of U.S.-made doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University to the bloc — somewhat ironically, given its approval of Italy seizing EU-made AstraZeneca doses bound for Australia.

BRUSSELS (AP) – Europe’s vaccine solidarity got a shot in the arm Friday as France rallied to support Italy, saying it could follow suit in blocking exports of coronavirus vaccines outside the European Union if necessary to enforce its own contracts with drugs manufacturers.

Australia’s finance minister has suggested that a “desperate” European Union is “tear[ing] up the rule book” after the European Commission backed Italy’s request to block a shipment of coronavirus vaccines.

The European Commission has reportedly authorised the Italian government to block a shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines destined for Australia, using for the first time an export control system the EU created if it deemed a drugs company had failed to deliver its orders to the European Union.

The majority of Germans have said that the European Union has mishandled the rollout of vaccines — a shock result for citizens from the historically pro-EU member state.

The EU will introduce legislation to introduce a vaccine passport this month, EU President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday.

Euro elites that mourn the loss of Britain and its significant financial contributions have themselves to blame, Hungary’s Orban has said.

The British government is reportedly preparing to launch a series of tit-for-tat trade restrictions with the European Union dubbed the “Water Wars” in response to the bloc’s ban of shellfish from the UK. The government is said to be considering

Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said the Hungarian government was willing to get rid of a law making foreign-funding of NGOs transparent after the European Commission began an infringement procedure earlier this week.

European Union parliamentarian Guy Verhofstadt has admitted that the bloc’s vaccine rollout has been “a fiasco”, and that Ursula von der Leyen’s leadership has potentially “ruined” relations with the United Kingdom. In a video entitled: “the inconvenient truth behind the

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has admitted that the European Union was at fault for the delays to rolling out vaccines to European citizens, after last week acknowledging that countries acting alone, like Britain, are “speedboats” compared to

Ursula von der Leyen has claimed that vaccine development is being treated like a Soviet-era “space race” fueled by confrontational mindsets.

SAINT-HERBLAIN, France (AP) – French pharmaceutical startup Valneva had big news in September: a government contract for 60 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine candidate. The buyer? The United Kingdom.

After weeks of trying to apportion blame elsewhere and even threatening British drugs supplies, the head of the European Commission has admitted to the European Union’s vaccine failures.

The EU is haemorrhaging goodwill over its handling of the corona vaccine, as pro-Brussels outlets line up to criticise the bloc’s leadership.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Germany will consider using the vaccine developed by Russia, as the European Union continues to struggle to inoculate their populations against the Chinese coronavirus. On Tuesday, the medical journal The Lancet said that

The British government is willing to “move on” from the European Union’s aborted effort to impose a hard border between EU Ireland and British Northern Ireland and help Brussels overcome its vaccine failures.

The European Union, which used the border between British Northern Ireland and the EU’s Republic of Ireland as an all-important bargaining chip in the Brexit talks, broke the rules it demanded for the province and introduced a hard border in an attempt to remedy its vaccine failures. 

Brexit chief Nigel Farage has said that the European Union’s handling of its vaccination programme shows that European nations are better off making their own decisions and should leave the bloc.

Major German newspaper Die Zeit has labelled the European Union’s failure to approve vaccines and secure their delivery as “the best advertisement for Brexit”.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that with the inauguration of Joe Biden, Europe once again has “a friend in the White House”. Speaking before the European Parliament on Wednesday morning, the EU Commission boss hailed the prospect