EU confesses to blundering in Northern Ireland vaccine row

Michael Gove calls for a 'reset' in relations after talks with European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič

Anger has grown in Northern Ireland over fears it will become collateral damage in the EU-UK vaccine fracas. AP

EU officials confessed on Saturday to a "blunder" in its threat to blockade vaccines to Northern Ireland, while Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove expressed confidence the UK's supply chain would be unaffected.

"They have recognised they have made a mistake and I believe we can now concentrate on making sure that our vaccine programme is successful," Mr Gove told Sky News.

The programme has certainly got off to a promising start, and Mr Gove said the UK was "on track" to meet its target of 15 million jabs by 15 February. As of Saturday it had administered 8,378,940 first doses and 480,432 second doses.

He also called for a 'reset' and for the people of Northern Ireland to come first, after conciliatory talks with European Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič.

The EU has fallen far behind Britain and the US in the race to vaccinate its public. It announced on Friday it would impose export controls on vaccines, widely seen as a threat to prevent doses from being sent to Britain.

But it was forced to reverse part of the announcement within hours, after both Britain and Ireland complained about plans to impose emergency export controls for vaccines across the land border between Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland.

Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted:

EU officials acknowledged that the decision to invoke emergency powers to control trade across the Northern Irish border had been a mistake. Preventing controls at the border was the central issue in five years of Brexit negotiations.

"It's a lot better to realise early on that something might be a problem and to change it than to stick to your guns and dig a hole for yourself," an EU official said on Saturday.

"As soon as it became apparent that there would be a political difficulty and sensitivity there, in particular on the Irish and Northern Irish side, we decided to take it out."

Another EU official called the drama "simply and plainly a blunder".

EU under scrutiny from vaccine-starved member states

Politicians in the EU are under intense pressure to explain why their countries have managed just a fraction of the vaccinations achieved in Britain which left the single market four weeks ago.

EU officials were furious earlier this month when British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca announced that most of the vaccine doses it had promised to deliver to the EU by March would be delayed because of production problems in Belgium.

The EU announced regulations on Friday to control exports of vaccines, widely seen as an implicit threat to block Pfizer shipments to Britain unless London shared its AstraZeneca shots.

AstraZeneca has been making millions of doses in Britain, but it told the EU it could not divert any to the continent until it fulfils a contract with the UK. Meanwhile, Britain has been importing EU-made doses of a separate vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.

But imposing restrictions on the Northern Irish border was a bridge too far, after five years of Brexit negotiations to keep it open. The issue is central to a 1998 peace deal that ended 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland.

Ireland's European Affairs Minister, Thomas Byrne, said Dublin had not been consulted on the move.

"This type of provision is standard in trade agreements but in the Northern Ireland situation, it obviously has a different political resonance and it's perhaps the case that this wasn't fully appreciated by the drafters," he told Newstalk radio.

"Clearly a mistake was made."