COVID-19: Embarrassing misstep in vaccines row risks damaging the unity the EU needs to succeed
The Commission's given us a dramatic piece of theatre - but after a week of flexing its muscles, not much has moved along.
Saturday 30 January 2021 14:36, UK
This has been a terrible 24 hours in the life of the European Commission - by aspiring to be tough and decisive, it has ended up being neither.
Last night, just after the Commission's hasty announcement about vaccine border controls on the Irish border, I got a message from an EU diplomat.
He was livid, not just at the decision ("heavy handed, irresponsible and unnecessary") but also at the way it had been reached.
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His contention was there had been no consultation and no strategic plan. Instead, that the Commission had spent the week lurching from one decision to another, furiously over-reacting to its spat with AstraZeneca over vaccine supplies.
Those within the Commission would, of course, disagree. For them the argument over vaccines gets to the very heart of what the European Union stands for - a unified approach to a big problem; the collective power that allows Europe to stand up to pharmaceutical giants.
Which is fine if it works, and if it reflects some sort of consensus. But I understand that, at the start of this week, senior diplomats from around the member states were asking the Commission to take the sting out of the public slanging match with AstraZeneca - to have the arguments in private, with a more conciliatory tone.
When I spoke to the Maltese deputy prime minister, he talked about "infantile quarrelling", and urged a focus on long-term goals rather than short-term expedience.
So what happened? A succession of public steps against AstraZeneca that created a dramatic piece of theatre, but certainly didn't take the heat out of the argument.
And even after the publication of the vaccine purchase agreement, it's still very unclear where responsibility lies. Both sets of lawyers can credibly point to clauses that support their cause. The fact is that, after a week of flexing its muscles, the Commission doesn't seem to have moved things along very much.
So why do we have this disconnect, and this simmering irritation? Perhaps because the Commission and its president, Ursula von der Leyen, have faced prolonged criticism for their approach to this pandemic, and this Irish border fiasco is the catalyst for some of it to start boiling over.
At first, it was about a sluggish approach to Europe's border controls, when nations made their own individual decisions and ignored the Commission's call for a joined-up approach.
Then came months of grumbles that Ms Von der Leyen and her team lacked dynamism and political finesse, despite her own assured public performances.
Phil Hogan, her trade commissioner, resigned. Stand-offs with Hungary and Poland were never properly resolved.
Now, it's about the way that Ms Von der Leyen and her team are managing the rollout of vaccines across the continent.
By common consent, it started sluggishly just about everywhere - although that isn't necessarily the Commission's fault. France, for instance, simply didn't have the infrastructure in place early enough.
But the row with AstraZeneca does seem to have synthesised disparate strands of discontent.
If there is one thing the wider European Union prizes, and demands, it is the idea that its leadership is strong, resolute and dependable.
At the moment, exacerbated by this embarrassing and clumsy misstep around Article 16, there are those wondering if that really is the case.
And if not - what damage could be done to the Union's unity?