When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was left standing because of a lack of chairs in Turkey this week, she reacted with an audible "erm".
10 April 2021
Video of the scene quickly went viral and what had begun as an attempt to repair tense EU-Turkey relations turned into a diplomatic spat that has been dubbed "sofagate".
Ros Atkins looks at the fallout from the event and why there might have been more to it than meets the eye.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-56696618
The European Commission hit out Wednesday after its chief Ursula von der Leyen was left without a chair as Turkey's president sat down for talks with her male counterpart.
World > Diplomacy > The European Union > Turkey >
published 7 April 2021 at 14h16 BST.
AU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen -- who was left without a chair© TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP - video grab from footage released by the Turkish presidency shows Erdogan receiving EU Council President Charles Michel and EVideo from TueU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen -- who was left without a chair© TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP -sday’s encounter in Ankara showed von der Leyen flummoxed as Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Council president Charles Michel took two chairs in front of the EU and Turkish flags.
U Commission President Ursula von der Leyen -- who was left without a chair© TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP -
Video from Tuesday’s encounter in Ankara showed von der Leyen flummoxed as Recep Tayyip Erdogan and European Council president Charles Michel took two chairs in front of the EU and Turkish flags.
“Ehm,” muttered the former German defence minister, holding out her arms in apparent exasperation.
Eventually she was seated on a sofa a little further away from her counterparts, opposite Turkey‘s foreign minister — someone below her in the pecking order of diplomatic protocol.
Von der Leyen, as president of the European Commission, is head of the EU executive. Michel, president of the European Council, represents member state governments. Brussels expects both to be treated with the protocol reserved for a head of government.
“The president of the commission was clearly surprised,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said, insisting von der Leyen should have been treated “exactly in the same manner” as Michel.
“She does consider that these issues are important and need to be treated appropriately, which they clearly were not,” Mamer said.
The faux pas — quickly dubbed “sofagate” online — came at a delicate moment as the EU and Turkey look to rebuild ties despite concerns over Ankara’s record on rights, including discrimination against women.
Erdogan angered Brussels ahead of the visit by the bloc’s chiefs by announcing he was withdrawing Turkey from the Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women and children.
Speaking after the meeting with the Turkish leader, von der Leyen stressed that “human rights issues are non-negotiable”.
“I am deeply worried about the fact that Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention” she said.
Von der Leyen was ‘clearly surprised’ by her treatement© POOL/AFP/File Aris OIkonomou
“This is about protecting women, and protecting children against violence, and this is clearly the wrong signal right now.”
Spokesman Mamer said that the problem surrounding von der Leyen’s seating during the meeting with Erdogan had “sharpened her focus on the issue”.
The perceived slight to the first woman ever to occupy one of the EU’s top two roles raised hackles back in Brussels.
“First they withdraw from the Istanbul Convention and now they leave the President of European Commission without a seat in an official visit. Shameful. #WomensRights,” wrote Spanish European Parliament member Iratxe Garcia Perez.
German MEP Sergey Lagodinsky wrote of von der Leyen’s utterance that “‘Ehm’ is the new term for ‘that’s not how EU-Turkey relationship should be’.”
But not all the ire was directed at the Turkish side.
Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld was left questioning why Michel was “silent” as his female colleague was left without a seat.
There was no immediate comment from Michel’s spokesman or the Turkish presidency over the incident.
Relations between Brussels and Ankara were severely strained last year as tensions spiralled over Turkish gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.
The EU is eyeing improved cooperation after a diplomatic offensive by Erdogan over the past few months aimed at mending ties between the neighbours.
Ties between Turkey and the EU are already strained© AFP/File Thierry CHARLIER
The bloc has been encouraged by Turkey resuming talks with Greece over a disputed maritime border and moves to restart peace efforts over divided EU member Cyprus.
Brussels has shelved sanctions against Ankara and is offering economic and diplomatic incentives — but insists Erdogan must maintain the current calm and engage constructively on key issues.
https://www.24matins.uk/topnews/int/turkeys-chair-snub-riles-eu-chief-as-she-defends-womens-rights-277148
Nigel Farage has suggested the United Kingdom cut off Brexit “divorce” payments ...
Nigel Farage has suggested the United Kingdom cut off Brexit “divorce” payments to the European Union should it follow through with threats to ban vaccine exports to Britain.
The Brexit champion said that the EU has shown its “true colours”, accusing Brussels of acting like a communist regime through “seizing the means of production” at vaccine factories across Europe.
Over the weekend, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen threatened to block the export of up to 19 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Britain, saying: “We have the possibility to forbid planned exports.”
The British government in turn has signalled that it will have “no choice” but to halt exports of the raw materials required to produce the vaccine to the continent.
Mr Farage said that the British government should take a tougher line with the bloc, suggesting that the country withhold payments pledged to the EU under the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
“We’re still paying vast sums of money to an organization that threatened to put a border back in Ireland, to an organization that is taking a series of legal actions against us, to an organization that has made exporting goods into the EU unnecessarily difficult — totally contrary to the spirit of the agreement,” Mr Farage said.
Under the Withdrawal Agreement, the British taxpayer will pay the EU 11 billion pounds this year, with an additional £8.7 billion projected for next year.
“From the referendum vote to us finally getting out of these financial obligations, we’ll have paid them nearly 80 billion pounds. I now cannot see why we should pay 10 billion pounds this year to an organization that is acting in bad faith, an organization that is threatening to block legally acquired vaccines,” Mr Farage said.
“I honestly think that the government should stop playing softly-softly with the European Union. They are being absolutely brutish and nasty to us, we just seem to lie down and take it every time… let’s now threaten them with this money,” he demanded.
“They’re in breach of what we signed up and agreed to and if they continue in this manner we will stop giving them billions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money,” Farage said.
“I urge the government in their negotiations to tell the EU, which is struggling for cash anyway, start playing with a straight bat or we are not going to send you any more money,” he concluded.
As of March 22nd, 44.6 people per 100 have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine in the United Kingdom, compared to just 13.25 per 100 on average throughout the entirety of the EU, according to Our World in Data.
In February, Peter Tiede of the German newspaper Bild said that the EU’s vaccine fiasco has been the “biggest confidence-destroying programme in its history”.
This followed a similar pronouncement from Die Zeit, which declared in an opinion piece in January that the ordeal has been “the best advertisement for Brexit”.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/23/britain-should-withhold-brexit-divorce-money-if-the-eu-blocks-vaccines-says-nigel-farage/
MATT HANCOCK has heaped praised on AstraZeneca after weeks of criticism of the vaccine from EU countries and threats ban exports of the jab to the UK.
European countries left with a shortage of vaccine doses by the EU’s stuttering procurement process are turning to the “gray market” in their search for more jabs.
“Desperate” EU nations are beginning to take “pitches from around the world at often exorbitant prices”, The New York Times (NYT) reports, with Russia and China offering vaccines alongside a “murky open market” where EU leaders are “unsure of the sellers and the products”.
As the bloc’s powerhouses increasingly fall behind in their efforts to vaccinate their populations, the race to secure enough doses is ramping up, with countries “under growing pressure to expand their efforts”, the Financial Times adds.
The EU has said that “countries should not be cutting separate deals with the same pharmaceutical companies that it has negotiated contracts with for the whole bloc”, the NYT says. But that has not stopped individual nations from agreeing deals with Russia and China to make up a shortfall in the number of doses required.
The Netherlands has agreed to buy 600,000 doses of the Pfizer jab, with officials refusing to say which country was providing the vaccines, while Hungary has “unilaterally approved and bought Russian and Chinese vaccines”, the paper continues.
While Hungary is the first country in the bloc to agree to buy Russian and Chinese jabs, “others, such as Croatia and the Czech Republic, are weighing similar moves”, the NYT adds. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also spoken with Vladimir Putin about manufacturing the Sputnik V vaccine on the continent in an effort to bolster supplies.
Viktor Orban’s eagerness to do a deal with his allies to the East is an extension of the Hungarian prime minister’s “eurosceptic communication”, Andras Biro-Nagy, from the Budapest-based Policy Solutions, told EUobserver. Orban has previously moved to “strengthen ties” with the two countries, meaning he was well placed to quickly negotiate a deal for vaccines, the site adds.
Hungary has also signed a deal for five million vaccine doses from Sinopharm, the Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company, after giving it emergency-use approval on 29 January. The vaccine is “already in use in Hungary’s non-EU neighbour Serbia”, EuroNews reports, where 1.44 million people have so far been vaccinated, according to Oxford University data.
As “stumbles by the world’s richest bloc of nations turn vaccine politics toxic”, many of Europe’s “senior government officials and even heads of government have received dozens of unsolicited offers for vaccines”, the NYT says.
“Few of the sellers appear to be legitimate operators,” the paper says, with Ville Itala, director-general of the European Anti-Fraud (OLAF) office, saying: “They are offering vaccines, quite huge amounts, so far it’s 460 million doses, which is around €3bn [£2.5bn].”
Two officials from the European Commission told Sky News that there is growing concern over “ghost” vaccines being offered to EU nations. “There is a really large quantity,” said one, adding: “Nobody has any idea what is actually in these vials… The best case is it's just not working, in the worst case it's a very serious issue.” Another anonymous official told Reuters that “it is unclear whether these are genuine vaccine doses or if we are just talking about salt water in small vials”.
OLAF has launched an investigation into the efforts to “cash in” on the bloc’s stumbling jab campaign, Sky News says. However, “with offers piling in, officials say they are prepared to examine each one carefully before rejecting it”, the NYT adds.
“Most of the middlemen claim to be selling the AstraZeneca shot,” the paper says, with “brokers in Dubai and elsewhere” so far approaching the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Finland and Italy.
“Germany, France and other European countries are struggling to accelerate their Covid-19 vaccination programmes,” the FT reports, with Germany facing “pressure to change its Covid vaccination strategy” to more closely resemble the UK’s approach of delaying the second dose, The Telegraph adds.
On Sunday, “the country's top vaccine regulator acknowledged that advice against giving the AstraZeneca jab to over-65s had been flawed”, the paper continues, prompting Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination to call for the government to change tack after a study found it could save 15,000 lives.
The FT says that Germany and France are struggling in part because of “delays in using available vaccine doses” also seen in Italy and the Netherlands.
European Commission leaders, who will discuss the bloc’s progress during a video conference on Thursday, have urged member states “to deliver on the actual vaccination as quickly as possible and ensure that it follows the pace of deliveries”.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/where-are-desperate-eu-countries-turning-in-search-of-extra-covid-vaccines/ar-BB1e7q2K?ocid=msedgntp
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday he was angry that more COVID-19 vaccines were not ordered last year as EU chief executive Ursula von der Leyen renewed her defence of the European Commission's record on rolling them out.
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Saturday he was angry that more COVID-19 vaccines were not ordered last year as EU chief executive Ursula von der Leyen renewed her defence of the European Commission’s record on rolling them out.
EU countries have so far given first doses to just under 4% of their populations, compared with 11% for the United States and almost 17% for Britain, according to Our World in Data. Von der Leyen has been under fire for the EU’s slow rollout.
“I’m angry about some of the decisions that were taken last year,” Scholz told BBC radio’s Today programme. “I think there had been the opportunity to order more of the vaccines.”
Asked about von der Leyen’s responsibility for the slow rollout, Scholz, speaking in English, replied: “I think it is necessary that anyone learns the lesson, and this is also (true) for Europe. I think the European Union is strong.”
Scholz, a Social Democrat, and von der Leyen, a Christian Democrat, served together in Germany’s ruling coalition until 2019, when she quit to take over as European Commission president.
In an opinion piece to run in Sunday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, von der Leyen said it was misleading to say that sealing vaccine contracts earlier would have speeded up their delivery.
“The bottleneck lies elsewhere. Producing a new vaccine is an incredibly complex business,” she wrote, adding that “among the hundreds of components needed, important ingredients are in short supply worldwide”.
Describing the fight against the virus as “not a sprint, it is a marathon”, von der Leyen added that “mutations worry us”.
“We need to prepare today for a scenario in which the virus can no longer be sufficiently suppressed with current vaccines,” she said.
Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Nick Macfie
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-germany-eu-idUSKBN2A60JC
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.
FEBRUARY 5, 2021
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.
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.
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
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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