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Sabtu, 30 Januari 2021

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: The lumbering EU monster panicked and showed its true nature - Daily Mail

MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: The lumbering EU monster panicked and showed its true nature. A better vindication of Brexit could not be found

By Mail on Sunday Comment for the Daily Mail

Published: 23:01 GMT, 30 January 2021 | Updated: 23:16 GMT, 30 January 2021

As the ancient proverb says, when the gods wish to destroy a man, they first make him mad. The contortions and swerves of the European Union over vaccines in the past few days certainly suggest that it is losing its reason.

Perhaps in time these events will weaken its strange power over much of Europe and compel its peoples and leaders to reconsider the wisdom of building a vast multinational state in defiance of human nature.

What is the reason for all this flailing, for the sudden threat to create a border across Ireland in defiance of everything that the EU and its leaders have claimed, for years, to stand for?

This proposal, now abandoned amid fury and derision, is in fact the key to understanding the significance of the moment.

How many times have we had to listen to supporters of the European project, and of Britain's continued membership of it, lecturing and preaching to us about this very issue, and about how Brexit would lead to a renewed hard frontier along the 300 winding miles from Carlingford Lough to the Foyle Estuary? It was never true. The physical border which once existed was created largely by the Troubles, and vanished when they ended, becoming virtually invisible in recent years.

As the ancient proverb says, when the gods wish to destroy a man, they first make him mad. The contortions and swerves of the European Union over vaccines in the past few days certainly suggest that it is losing its reason. Pictured: Boris Johnson on Wednesday

Britain and Northern Ireland had no desire to create any such thing, and no reason to do so, and Boris Johnson bent over backwards in his negotiations with Brussels to ensure that no demarcation line would ensue when we left the EU.

In fact, a unique internal division now exists between Britain and Northern Ireland, a powerful sign of just how much London wished to keep the island of Ireland physically undivided.

Not so Brussels, as we now find out. When the European Commission thought its interests were threatened, out went all the pious rhetoric of the past and in came total power-hungry cynicism.

In Dublin, in Belfast and London alike, politicians and people who have long been divided came together in a coalition of amazed shock and dismay.

It must be a unique achievement to have combined Boris Johnson, the Democratic Unionist leader, Arlene Foster, the fervent anti-British Republicans of Sinn Fein, the Irish Government itself, the Labour Party and even the Archbishop of Canterbury in unanimous fury.

Initially speechless with anger, this unexpected alliance of disparate opponents made their feelings known in the foggy, insulated corridors and committee rooms of Brussels. And the EU, suddenly remembering that it was supposed to be Dublin's most reliable ally and friend, grabbed hold of the handbrake and swivelled round to face in the opposite direction.

It must be a unique achievement to have combined Boris Johnson, the Democratic Unionist leader, Arlene Foster (pictured), the fervent anti-British Republicans of Sinn Fein, the Irish Government itself, the Labour Party and even the Archbishop of Canterbury in unanimous fury

Well and good. It is far better to admit and correct a mistake than to persist pigheadedly with the original error. But as in so many such events, the lasting outcome is that we now know what the EU's directing spirits are really like when they panic and pursue their own interests with honest ruthlessness.

It would be hard to find a clearer way of showing that those who campaigned to take this country out of the EU were right when they said it was a sclerotic, centralised scheme which was bound by its nature to trample on the rights and freedoms of independent nation states, even those it claims to favour and nurture.

Its guiding idea was that traditional nations were unable to govern themselves or make their own decisions, that major actions were better done in unison, that together they were stronger.

But contrast the EU's performance over Covid vaccinations with that of the independent UK. The results say it all.

While millions of UK citizens have been vaccinated and the programme speeds ahead, many EU countries have barely begun, and are still squabbling among themselves.

The Irish crisis resulted from those squabbles, and a selfish desire to grab as big a share as possible of Pfizer vaccines, which Britain had already secured by forethought and good planning. Even a German newspaper has described Britain's nimble, alert performance as 'the best advert for Brexit'.

Early decisions to develop a vaccine, to ensure swift experimentation and tough but decisive approval mechanisms, to prepare the necessary logistics, and to sign vital contracts, all paid off.

Compare the glacial performance of the EU's cumbersome bureaucracy, as usual moving at the pace of the slowest.

In fact, several EU nations did try to launch out on their own, with France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands forming a 'Vaccine Alliance'. But, in a highly significant demonstration of the realities of living in a centralised superstate, this was abruptly cancelled.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel realised that it was defying EU dogma. And dogma won. So, far from together being stronger, the opposite is true.

The nation state, with its lasting common interests, its short lines of communication, its existing structures of experience and co-ordination, its single language and law, actually works better in a crisis than a vast multi-lingual collection of wholly disparate nations which can and does spend years standardising the most basic widget, notorious for delay, indecision and tardy outcomes.

Sister Joanna Sloan (left) becomes the first person in Northern Ireland to receive the first of two Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine jabs at the Royal Victoria Hospital on December 8

Certainly in this case, Britain has demonstrated beyond doubt that it is far more supple, quick, inventive and ready to take necessary risks than its giant neighbour. How fitting it would now be if Britain, which has always hoped to remain on the best of terms with its former EU partners, were able to offer help with vaccines to our valued friends in the Irish Republic.

Many people deserve credit for this outcome. Health Secretary Matt Hancock realised from the start we would need to boost our manufacturing capacity to ensure that others would not capitalise on the likely success of our science. The 'vaccine tsar' Kate Bingham, devoted extraordinary energy and commitment to her task, single-mindedly obeying Boris Johnson's mandate to 'stop people from dying' with an intense purpose comparable to a wartime scramble to develop vital new weapons.

Where expertise was needed, it was found and devoted to the task. Where money was needed, it was allocated.

But there was also planning. The Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, showed extraordinary and crucial foresight, spotting in time that without vials to put the vaccine doses in, and without freezers to store them, all other efforts would fail.

So here the United Kingdom is, responding with speed, skill and efficiency to the challenge, vaccinating multitudes hour by hour and driving back the danger of the virus, jab by jab and day by day.

And there is the EU, fumbling, held back by internal jealousies and meaningless rivalries between national governments and central power.

And on Friday night it all came to a head in an astonishing demonstration of the abiding truth.

We were, and are, and will be better off outside this lumbering, inefficient monster. And it may well be that the peoples of the EU will now seek reforms to restore to their own nations at least some of the freedom which we have won back.

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2021-01-30 23:01:00Z
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UK applying to join Asia-Pacific free trade pact CPTPP - BBC News

Liz Truss posing next to flags representing the nations in the trade deal

The UK is applying to join a free trade area made up of 11 Asia and Pacific nations, under its post-Brexit plans.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership - or CPTPP - includes Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand.

In total, it covers a market of around 500 million people, generating more than 13% of the world's income.

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss will make the request on Monday, with negotiations expected in the spring.

There are 11 countries in the CPTPP trade agreement formed in 2018: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

The US was originally in talks to be part of the CPTPP, but former President Donald Trump pulled out when he took office.

The main purpose of the deal is to cut trade tariffs - a form of tax, like a border tax - between member countries.

It includes a promise to eliminate or reduce 95% of import charges - although some of these charges are kept to protect some home-made products, for example Japan's rice and Canada's dairy industry.

In return, countries must cooperate on regulations, such as food standards. However, these standards and regulations do not have to be identical, and member countries can strike their own trade deals.

How many trade deals has the UK done so far?

The UK is the first non-founding country to apply and, if successful, would be its second biggest economy after Japan.

Analysis box by Dharshini David, global trade correspondent

Exactly a year after it said goodbye to the EU, the UK is eying a new trading club.

It sounds a win-win: those Pacific Rim nations represent 13% of global income and 500 million people - and the UK would retain the freedom to strike deals elsewhere. There'd be agreement on how standards and regulations are set (with minimums to be adhered to) - but they wouldn't need to be identical.

In practice, however, the short-terms gains for households and business would be limited. The UK already has trade deals with seven of the 11 nations - and is pursuing two more. In total, CPTPP nations account for less than 10% of UK exports, a fraction of what goes to the EU.

This deal would however deepen some of those ties - and allow UK manufacturers who source components from multiple nations in the bloc some benefits under "rules of origins" allowances.

But the real boost could come in the future, if others join - in particular the US, as President Biden has hinted. That would give the UK that hoped-for trade deal with America - within a trading bloc wielding considerable power on the global stage.

Brexit Britain has shown Europe the way, writes DR GUNNAR BECK - Daily Mail

So much for that famous German efficiency – Brexit Britain has shown Europe the way, writes MEP DR GUNNAR BECK

By Dr Gunnar Beck For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 22:01 GMT, 30 January 2021 | Updated: 22:23 GMT, 30 January 2021

How you Brits must be breathing a sigh of relief that your lives are no longer run by bungling European bureaucrats.

For the truth is that EU red tape – the customary mountain of Brussels paperwork that has led to shortages of vaccine supplies across the continent – is literally costing lives.

While a close relative of mine in her 80s has been told by the German government her Covid-19 vaccination has been fixed for late March or some time in April, 8.3 million people in Brexit Britain have already been inoculated.

That means almost everybody in the German woman's age group has received their first inoculation.

The simple reason is that Brexit has allowed Boris Johnson's Government the flexibility to move quickly.

How you Brits must be breathing a sigh of relief that your lives are no longer run by bungling European bureaucrats, writes GUNNAR BECK. Pictured: A Covid-19 vaccination centre at Wembley in London

It acted swiftly to identify which companies were leading the race to create a vaccine. It then snappily signed supply contracts and swept aside any bureaucratic obstacles to give early approval to the jabs.

So much for German efficiency. Instead, Britain has shown the way. And so much for the EU's supposed negotiating power and economies of scale.

In short, the EU is furious to have been beaten at every stage of the vaccine race by Britain – which is why ministers from the 27 EU countries are belatedly trying to force AstraZeneca to give them more doses.

The statistics don't lie. Britain is vaccinating between three and four times the number of people the EU is.

By being agile and adopting a Britain-first policy, it has secured a reliable supply of vaccines stretching into the future, which will, in turn, allow it to save more lives. This has become a nightmare for the EU.

The bloc's slow, dysfunctional approach has been a huge failure for the Commission in Brussels.Someone must take responsibility. In particular, Eurocrats must be held to account for this farce – and the buck stops with the Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Now that details of how Brussels negotiated with AstraZeneca have been revealed, we can see how amateur the EU has been on crucial issues such as quantities and delivery dates.

It appears that the EU made basic errors by entering into contracts significantly later than Britain, and did not insist on timely or regular delivery dates.

In contrast, Britain held competent negotiations with AstraZeneca and was less sloppy on matters of price and quantity

And despite the EU's claims, the truth is that being a large, multilingual, complex organisation does not favour swift action.

Pictured: A person enters a coronavirus vaccination centre at Westfield Stratford in London

The great fear now for EU leaders, of course, is that a successful Brexit could become a model for other countries which want to leave the bloc. The vaccine row exacerbates that fear.

That is why we are seeing stories in German newspapers that the British vaccines have not been properly tested and that the Oxford AstraZeneca jab is ineffective for elderly people. If so, Brits may ask why the EU is so keen to get its hand on their share?

The central problem is that the member countries of the EU have surrendered their vaccine negotiations to the bureaucrats of Brussels.

Dr Gunnar Beck (pictured) is MEP for the Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) party

The justification is that collective bargaining means better prices and delivery times. In theory. But experience tells us that more, often than not, it actually leads to sub-optimal results.

The EU stuck to its slow, rigid procedures for approving new drugs, even as vaccines were pouring off the production lines – never mind the urgency of the crisis.

Another issue is the inevitable conflict of interests among 27 different countries. Some member states are unwilling to subordinate national interests, and there is too little resistance to business and political lobbying by von der Leyen's Commission.

For example, although the French company Sanofi never gave any indication of being at the front of the game to produce a vaccine, the EU ordered as much from it as it did from Pfizer, which showed it would have an effective vaccine.

You have to wonder why. Meanwhile, freed from the shackles of Brussels, Britain took a calculated gamble and fast-tracked the vaccine approval on the assumption that speed was of the essence.

So far, it seems the UK's more flexible, autonomous approach is more effective. By contrast, the EU's handling of the situation has been an organisational shambles.

Commission president von der Leyen should resign.

Dr Gunnar Beck is MEP for the Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) party. He is also a member of the working group on the Conference on the Future of Europe.

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2021-01-30 22:01:00Z
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COVID-19: EU 'recognise they made a mistake' in move to block vaccine exports, says Gove - Sky News

The EU "recognise they made a mistake" by invoking a Brexit deal clause to prevent coronavirus vaccine shipments entering the UK, Michael Gove has said.

The bloc has faced widespread criticism after its short-lived move to override part of the agreement on Northern Ireland over export controls.

And Minister for the Cabinet Office Mr Gove said the union now realised it was in the wrong - and promised the UK would "work with them to make sure their own problems can be tackled".

Live coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world

He said "we need a reset" of relations following the furore, which was sparked by a row between the EU and AstraZeneca over supply of its COVID-19 jab.

Brussels had sought to halt vaccines entering the UK through "the back door" with checks at the border of the Republic and Northern Ireland, by triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

It backtracked on the move - which a former European prime minister has suggested it should consider apologising for - after condemnation from London, Dublin and Belfast, with leaders all blindsided by the decision.

And Mr Gove said: "I think the European Union recognise that they made a mistake in triggering Article 16, which would have meant the re-imposition of a border on the island of Ireland.

"But now the European Union have stepped back, and they've stepped back following clear conversations that the prime minister has had with the European Commission president and I've had with European Commission vice president."

DUP leader Arlene Foster had described Brussels' actions as "absolutely disgraceful" and an "incredible act of hostility".

Tory MP and former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers said she sympathised with Ms Foster over the episode.

"After all the self-righteousness the EU demonstrated about not having a hard border on the island of Ireland, then to invoke Article 16 just 29 days after the protocol came into effect seems drastic and, quite frankly, unjustified," she told Sky News.

EU officials say they have asked AstraZeneca to send some doses manufactured in the UK to Europe to make up the shortfall, although the firm has said its contract with the UK prevented this.

The European Commission also announced it was setting up controls on coronavirus vaccine supplies from the EU to outside the bloc, while insisting it was not a ban.

But despite speculation the row could cause a vaccine shortfall in Britain, Mr Gove suggested the government would not now be moving to order that second Pfizer jabs be administered sooner.

"We have assurances that the supply… that we have paid for is going to be delivered," he said.

"That's why we are carrying on with our programme."

He continued: "The prime minister was very clear, we've entered into contractual arrangements with AstraZeneca and Pfizer and we expect those arrangements to be honoured.

"And [European Commission] President von der Leyen was clear that she understood exactly the UK Government's position, so we expect that those contracts will be honoured, we expect that vaccines will continue to be supplied.

"The European Union know that and of course we'll work with them in order to make sure that their own problems can be tackled."

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He said the UK did not now feel it had the upper hand in its relationship with Brussels.

"No, we want to work with our friends and neighbours in the European Union," he said.

"We recognise some the difficulties and pressures that they face. Now we can move on and we can ensure that the issues which the people of Northern Ireland are legitimately concerned about can be addressed."

He said he had spoken to European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic about the issue.

"We've both agreed that we need a reset, that we need to put the people of Northern Ireland first," he said.

Mr Sefcovic later said in a statement posted on Twitter: "Our shared priority is making sure the Protocol works for the people of Northern Ireland, protecting gains of the peace process and avoiding disruption to everyday lives.

"Jointly committed to redoubling our efforts to address outstanding issues."

Finland's former prime minister, Alexander Stubb, told Sky News he was shocked by the EU's decision to trigger the clause and that the bloc should consider apologising.

"At first I didn't believe it because I think it slaps in the face every principle that the Europeans stand for, including the free movement of goods," he said.

"I thought it was a mistake, and obviously it was a mistake, but it took a little too long to retract it... I think they should even think about apologising."

And former permanent secretary at the now disbanded Brexit department Philip Rycroft told Sky News: "In my view it was wholly disproportionate to what they were seeking to achieve. It was unnecessary.

"It bears all the hallmarks of a bureaucracy that is under huge pressure, action before it was thinking straight... and basically getting it horribly wrong."

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, backed the move to impose vaccine controls as he raised questions about a lack of doses being delivered.

He said: "It should be controlled because there is questionable behaviour and we will be receiving fewer deliveries that do not honour the contractual engagements agreed."

Mr Macron has faced criticism for seeking to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca jab in the over-65s while demanding supplies of the vaccine.

His comments have been dismissed as "demand management".

Over three nights, Sky News will host a series of special programmes examining the UK's response to the pandemic.

Watch COVID Crisis: Learning the Lessons at 8pm on 9, 10 and 11 February.

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2021-01-30 18:45:00Z
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COVID-19: EU 'recognise they made a mistake' in move to block vaccine exports, says Gove - Sky News

The EU "recognise they made a mistake" by invoking a Brexit deal clause to prevent coronavirus vaccine shipments entering the UK, Michael Gove has said.

The bloc has faced widespread criticism after its short-lived move to override part of the agreement on Northern Ireland over export controls.

And Minister for the Cabinet Office Mr Gove said the union now realised it was in the wrong - and promised the UK would "work with them to make sure their own problems can be tackled".

Live coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world

He said "we need a reset" of relations following the furore, which was sparked by a row between the EU and AstraZeneca over supply of its COVID-19 jab.

Brussels had sought to halt vaccines entering the UK through "the back door" with checks at the border of the Republic and Northern Ireland, by triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

And Mr Gove said: "I think the European Union recognise that they made a mistake in triggering Article 16, which would have meant the re-imposition of a border on the island of Ireland.

DUP leader Arlene Foster had described Brussels' actions as "absolutely disgraceful" and an "incredible act of hostility".

EU officials say they have asked AstraZeneca to send some doses manufactured in the UK to Europe to make up the shortfall, although the firm has said its contract with the UK prevented this.

The European Commission also announced it was setting up controls on coronavirus vaccine supplies from the EU to outside the bloc, while insisting it was not a ban.

But despite speculation the row could cause a vaccine shortfall in Britain, Mr Gove suggested the government would not now be moving to order second Pfizer jabs were administered sooner.