EUROPEAN COMMISSION president Ursula von der Leyen has admitted that the European Union is not where it wants to be in the fight against Covid-19.
Speaking in a debate in the European Parliament, the seasoned politician conceded – for the first time in public – that mistakes had been made.
“We were late with the approval. We were too optimistic on mass production”, she said, while also taking a subtle jab at certain vaccine suppliers by saying, “And perhaps we were also too certain that the orders would actually be delivered on time”.
Dr von der Leyen faced criticism from MEPs who were dissatisfied with the pace and scale of the EUs vaccine rollout – though she stood by her decision to order vaccines collectively was "the right thing to do".
President of the European Commission Ursula von der LeyenCommenting on the slow pace of vaccine approval, Dr von der Leyen said that the EU would not compromise on people’s health when injecting people with active substances.
According to Reuters, she highlighted that it was still unclear whether the inoculations would be effective on new strains of the virus.
The mass production of vaccines is highly complicated, she stressed, while clarifying that the EU had no intention to restrict companies that were honouring the terms of their contracts.
Facing sharp criticism for the procurement programme in her native Germany, she told the website Süddeutsche Zeitung that "a country on its own can be a speedboat, the EU is more like a tanker".
In response to the Irish hard border fiasco that she was roundly blamed for after the EU threatened to trigger Article 16, Dr von der Leyen restated the Commissions commitment to protecting the peace process in Northern Ireland.
She regretted that “bad mistakes” were made in the process leading up to the decision –rescinded quickly soon after – to trigger Article 16 and Northern Ireland.
However, she added: “But in the end we got it right.”
