The blame game over an embarrassing reversal on vaccine export controls has begun in Brussels, with the office of the European Commission President deflecting blame, pointing the finger instead at Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis.
The initial plan was to extend the new export curbs to Northern Ireland, which would have required Brussels to invoke a nuclear option in the Brexit agreement. It could have led to checks along the Irish border, something the commission fought long and hard to prevent in Brexit negotiations.
Outrage over the plan forced a hasty retreat within hours of its consideration.
The Commission's chief spokesperson, Eric Mamer, said the draft proposal was discussed between services and cabinets but added:
"What I can tell you is that there is one cabinet which was a lead on this, that is Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis because he is in charge of trade," said Mamer. "This regulation falls under the responsibility of Mr. Dombrovskis and his cabinet and of course the services in the commission which answer to him."
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The commission insisted that the mistake was caught while the provision was still in draft form and was corrected before the decision was finalized.
"In my country, we have a saying: 'Only the Pope is infallible'," Mamer told journalists.
It comes as the European Union faces global condemnation for its decision to implement new curbs on vaccine exports in the middle of a global pandemic. As of Saturday, companies need to get permission before they can ship jabs outside the bloc.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen /Reuters File
Amid criticism that Europe's immunization program has been bungled, the commission chalked up a victory on Monday. Pfizer-BioNTech said they would deliver an additional 75 million doses of their COVID-19 vaccine in the second quarter of the year. This piggybacks on the extra 9 million doses AstraZeneca promised through March.
But it still falls tens-of-millions short of the jabs promised and needed, as the pandemic rages and new, more transmissible variants begin to dominate.
On Monday, the woman in charge of the EU's vaccine procurement, Sandra Gallina, tried to ease lawmakers' concerns over vaccine supplies saying Brussels bought "all the doses that were available in time" when negotiating its contracts.
She also denied that the commission prioritized price over securing vaccines, amid questions of whether the EU focused too much on driving a hard bargain rather than quickly closing deals.
"I think the prices we have paid are fully justified. I don't think we should be paying more. What we should do is have the companies live up to their commitments," Gallina told the European Parliament Budget Committee.
Gallina, who is the director-general for health at the European Commission, said she remained confident the bloc can hit the ambitious goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the adult population by summer.