Member States shirk responsibility for the system they have designed - even if they benefit most from it.
In the European Union, a common procedure was chosen for ordering corona vaccines.
But Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz reproaches the other member states.
And it shows that the member states, even when they are behind the wheel, can still try to score politically in the short term by attacking Brussels.
This article is available for the first time in German - it was first published by
Foreign Policy
magazine on March 29, 2021
.
Washington - If anyone has recently given Europeans a good insight into how the European Union works - or not works - then it is the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
In mid-March, the 34-year-old accused the EU of distributing vaccination doses unfairly among its 27 member states. With a swipe at the "EU bazaar", he called for adjustments in favor of member states that received fewer vaccine doses than others. Kurz carried the dispute to the European Council meeting in Brussels at the end of March, which left less time on the agenda for urgent issues such as transatlantic relations, a common vaccination certificate and possible export bans on vaccines. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reportedly so annoyed with Kurz that she reminded the group that vaccine contracts were signed by member states themselves "and not by some stupid bureaucrats" in Brussels.
Sebastian Kurz: Austria's Chancellor is facing growing opposition - exposure of corruption scandals
The incident illustrates a basic truth about the EU: even when the member states are responsible for a decision in Brussels, they sometimes renounce it - even though they benefit most from this system.
In short, the conservative party leader, whom many saw just a few years ago as a child prodigy who could revive Austrian politics and society, enjoyed high ratings during most of the pandemic. Now he faces growing opposition. Many Austrians are reluctant to take the government’s COVID-19 measures. In Vienna, anti-vaccination campaigners, neo-Nazis and others regularly take to the streets. Kurz is just as eager to relax the COVID-19 measures as other European heads of state, but since the number of infections remains extremely high, he cannot afford to do that. Kurz's relationship with his green coalition partner - and especially with his green health minister - is tense at best. He also has to deal with the belated exposure of corruption scandals,which go back to his previous government with the right-wing extremist Freedom Party of Austria and in the course of which the police even recently searched the house of a close colleague and minister.
This accumulated pressure may explain why Kurz sought a way out and attacked Brussels, which is often a useful scapegoat for heads of state with dwindling popularity.
But that's no excuse for Kurz's irritability.
He is very well aware that Austria benefits most from the EU vaccination campaign.
Vaccine order from the European Union: Joint approach to corona pandemic
Last summer, European leaders, including Kurz, decided to jointly buy vaccines and distribute them among the 27 member states. Everyone in charge was aware that in the global competition for vaccines, the powerful, rich countries would come first, which in the European context would probably have meant that only Germany and France would be in a good position. Small countries like Austria would be at the back of the queue facing delays, high prices and other unfavorable conditions. This would put great political pressure on the EU as a bloc established in the 1950s to prevent European countries from waging another war. To prevent this,all member states have asked the European Commission to procure vaccines on their behalf. Norway and Switzerland joined the initiative as two small non-EU countries. The UK declined the invitation.
The Commission quickly prepared a plan, which the Member States approved.
As health care does not fall under the EU's competence, the national capitals kept the final say on all contracts with pharmaceutical companies.
They took the vaccine distribution plan into their own hands.
As soon as the first vaccine contracts were signed, a steering committee made up of officials from all Member States began distributing vaccines by population size.
The European Commission played no role in this.
EU colleagues stunned: Chancellor Kurz railed “unjust” - more vaccine for Austria
When Kurz railed against this distribution system on March 12, calling it “unjust” and alluding to “secret” treaties that would deprive some countries of their fair share, his colleagues were stunned. These were not casual remarks, but rather a deliberate statement from Kurz during a press conference. Austrian tabloids announced on their front pages that the Chancellor was determined to secure more vaccines for Austria at a Brussels summit on March 25th. If this isn't a patriotic struggle, what is it?
Reality soon set in, however. On Austrian radio, Ines Stilling, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health, explained how the European vaccine distribution works. Once the Commission buys these, it said, each Member State (proportional to its population) will be offered its share from each manufacturer. The national officials in the steering committee then decide whether or not to accept the quota offered. Some take whatever they can get. Others buy 100 percent of the cans assigned to their country from Pfizer, but only 60 percent of the cans from AstraZeneca, or vice versa. This decision is entirely up to the individual states, stressed Stilling. Each country pays the commission for the amount of vaccine they accept. Vaccines they don't wantgo back to the common reserve and become available to member states that want to buy more.
Austrian journalists next found out that the deputy chairman of the European steering committee was none other than Clemens Martin Auer, the national COVID-19 special envoy in Stilling's ministry.
Soon he too was interviewed.
Auer stated that he had indeed decided on behalf of his country not to buy the entire Austrian contingent of BioNTech vaccines when they were offered last year.
He had only taken three-quarters of the quota.
He, in turn, bought all of the cans offered by AstraZeneca.
At that time, of course, he did not yet know that this manufacturer would later not keep its promised EU deliveries.
Instead of 3.9 million cans, Austria received 2.5 million cans.
Other countries have had similar problems.
Covid-19 special envoy Auer has to go - Briefly writes a letter to Brussels with a vaccine request
That cost Auer his role as national COVID-19 special envoy, and he had to leave the steering committee.
When executives lose their knees, experts often pay the price.
There were rumors in the press that Stilling would also have to go, but she remains in office.
In the meantime, Kurz had to admit that the EU was not to blame, but he continued the fight.
He brought together the heads of state of other Member States who felt they were disadvantaged (Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Latvia and the Czech Republic).
Together they wrote a letter to Brussels demanding the fair share of vaccines that they were allegedly withheld.
However, other European heads of state and government were not in the mood to give in to Kurz's demands. Austria had recently received an advance of 100,000 additional doses from the commission for the state of Tyrol, where the ski lifts were open all winter, which led to a surge in infection rates. As a thank you, Kurz flew to Israel with his Danish colleague Mette Frederiksen to discuss a joint project for the production of vaccines against future coronavirus variants. This was a slap in the face for his EU colleagues: they planned to do this together, and now, to make matters worse, Kurz stepped out of line.
Statistics also showed that the Austrians were vaccinated faster than the average in Europe.
According to figures from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, Austria had vaccinated 14.6 people per 100 inhabitants, which was above the EU average of 13.6.
Act of solidarity on the part of the EU - frustration with Sebastian Kurz - also with Angela Merkel
However, the other countries that signed Kurz's letter lagged far behind the European average. They bought fewer vaccines because they couldn't afford more. As a result, national representatives in Brussels began working out plans to use (part of) an additional Pfizer quota of 10 million doses that the Commission had secured for the second trimester of 2021 to help these five countries - with the exception of Austria . This was an act of solidarity: all Member States refused their share of these additional doses. To organize this, several distribution plans have been drawn up over the past few weeks. One state vetoed them all: Austria.
The frustration of Kurz's political maneuvers at the expense of Europe is great, even among the countries of the “thrifty four” who fought alongside Austria last year to block the COVID-19 economic fund of 750 billion euros and the to cut the new multi-annual budget of the EU. When Kurz recently traveled to Berlin, Merkel did not take the time to receive him. According to several sources, this wasn't just due to their full program.
At the March 25 summit, Kurz was reportedly belligerent.
He blocked all attempts to redistribute the additional doses of Pfizer because they benefited the five really needy countries rather than the relatively wealthy Austria.
After a while, the issue was left to the ambassadors of the 27 Member States to be clarified later.
"We're not going to play the steering committee ourselves," Merkel is said to have said during the meeting.
The Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi then confirmed: "Kurz will not get any additional doses."
Brussels Summit: Déjà-vu of the Financial and Refugee Crisis - This is how things work in Europe
Kurz, on the other hand, tweeted that he was "happy, relieved and satisfied" with the result: a fairer redistribution of doses in the EU to those who need them. Not a word about his country not getting extra doses.
For many in Brussels, it feels like a déjà vu from the financial and refugee crisis. It often happened that agreements between heads of state were dissolved again after a few weeks because one of them panicked under domestic political pressure and violated the agreement through unilateral measures. But every time those responsible quickly realized that they couldn't do it alone and needed the EU to solve their problems. Then the process of pulling together began again, with a new summit and new European commitments. And the cycle started all over again.
At least one can credit Kurz for having made it clear that even when the member states are at the wheel, they can still try to score politically in the short term by attacking Brussels.
That's how things are in Europe.
by Caroline de Gruyter
Caroline de Gruyter
is the European correspondent for the Dutch newspaper
NRC Handelsblad
and a columnist for
Foreign Policy
.
This article was first published on Jan. March 2021 published in English in the magazine "ForeignPolicy.com" - in the course of a cooperation it is now also available in translation to the readers of
Merkur.de
.
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