Help I don't understand

[Thomas]

You could raise the matter with your MEP 

maybe one day you smug patronising middle england liberal amadans will get over brexit quackers , but somehow , i very much doubt it.

[HDQQ]

The EU wants to ban exports of vaccines ordered, bought and paid for under contract from companies who happen to operate within their borders. Are these companies private or owned by the countries they operate in? I understand that cash has been thrown at many vaccine producers by different Governments and I believe that France backed a French one which didn't materialise, but surely unless a company is owned funded and run by a State they can't then turn around and ban their legitimate trade? Or can they? Can anyone explain how the EU can even think this? I fail to see any logic.

You could raise the matter with your MEP 

[johnofgwent]

The EU wants to ban exports of vaccines ordered, bought and paid for under contract from companies who happen to operate within their borders. Are these companies private or owned by the countries they operate in? I understand that cash has been thrown at many vaccine producers by different Governments and I believe that France backed a French one which didn't materialise, but surely unless a company is owned funded and run by a State they can't then turn around and ban their legitimate trade? Or can they? Can anyone explain how the EU can even think this? I fail to see any logic.

The European Union has total control over what its member states can, and cannot, import and export.


Dozens, indeed hundreds, of commercial varieties of agricultural crops once in common use have been banned across the entire EU.


So have many chemicals.


I'm not going to say each of these decisions was wrong. I think some were. But my specific objection is that I feel that control belongs to the UK parliament but we're going over old ground here.


In essence, any of the sovereign states that disagree with this EU parliamentary decision can be free to ignore it, by following us and leaving the EU, single market and Customs Union. But if they NEED the vaccine they'll find their people dead of COVID, or bankrupt from the lockdowns, before they manage to leave...

[Borchester]

Thanks - I have read it right through but it doesn't answer the question of how the Commission can commandeer vaccine doses legitimately sold elsewhere. I don't follow how they can simply demand rights to a product already committed as if they own the company. According to the article big pharma has been leaving the EU gradually. I would imagine they would do a midnight flit on the strength of the EU demands.

As far as I can see, the EU can't. Chuck its weight around that is. Apparently France, Germany, Italy and Spain have pushed for the ban on the export of vaccines to the UK, but the Dutch, Irish (Thanks Gerry), Belgians and Swedes told them to go and fly a kite. The Eu's real aim appear to be to blame Ursula Leyen, the president of the EU Commission. 

[T00ts]

A lengthy but reasonably clear round-up of where we are and why... 
How Europe fell behind on vaccines.      
The EU secured some of the lowest prices in the world.   At what cost? 
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-struggle-pfizer-biontech-astrazeneca/

Thanks - I have read it right through but it doesn't answer the question of how the Commission can commandeer vaccine doses legitimately sold elsewhere. I don't follow how they can simply demand rights to a product already committed as if they own the company. According to the article big pharma has been leaving the EU gradually. I would imagine they would do a midnight flit on the strength of the EU demands.

[patman post]

A lengthy but reasonably clear round-up of where we are and why... 
How Europe fell behind on vaccines.      
The EU secured some of the lowest prices in the world.   At what cost? 
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-coronavirus-vaccine-struggle-pfizer-biontech-astrazeneca/

[cromwell]

But it doesn't make sense. I agree that EU typically like to look blameless, but surely no country can simply stop a firm dispatching orders just like that and the EU isn't even a country? I see India is now planning the same action.

They aren't a country......yet but there are those within it who seek to make it a major power.

Hence the ambassadors the talk of a combined military force,they also seek to impose their will via trade agreements.

They believe they can just block exports.

[T00ts]

The logic is simple T00ts,they were too slow to act are perceived by their own citizens in being so and now want to throw their weight around.

But it doesn't make sense. I agree that EU typically like to look blameless, but surely no country can simply stop a firm dispatching orders just like that and the EU isn't even a country? I see India is now planning the same action.

[cromwell]

The logic is simple T00ts,they were too slow to act are perceived by their own citizens in being so and now want to throw their weight around.

[T00ts]

The EU wants to ban exports of vaccines ordered, bought and paid for under contract from companies who happen to operate within their borders. Are these companies private or owned by the countries they operate in? I understand that cash has been thrown at many vaccine producers by different Governments and I believe that France backed a French one which didn't materialise, but surely unless a company is owned funded and run by a State they can't then turn around and ban their legitimate trade? Or can they? Can anyone explain how the EU can even think this? I fail to see any logic.