EU's conductor forced to face Brussels music as cacophony grows across EU

Von der Leyen dragged in front of MEPs in secret, closed meetings

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org

Given how the Commission is chosen, was the EU vaccine crisis an accident waiting to happen?

On 27 Nov 2019 in the French city of Strasbourg, 27 men and women were formally approved as EU Commissioners for the next five years. Led by their German President, Ursula von der Leyen, who had been selected in July, they started work on the following Monday. Ever since then, they have collectively had a direct impact on the lives of all British and EU27 people.

Constituting the ‘College of Commissioners’ these 27 men and women form the most powerful body in the EU after the EU27 national leaders themselves.

Yesterday, in her increasingly stressed attempts to save her job and the tattered reputation of the EU, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to appear before the committees of each of the major political groups in the EU Parliament, to explain her actions and to explain the disaster that is the EU Commission's handling of the Covid crisis and its vaccination programmes. This being the EU, these meetings were held behind closed doors and no reporters were allowed.

The EU's vaccine policies and programme has been a disaster and the Commission is to blame

As we have reported on more than one occasion in recent weeks, the EU's vaccination policies and programmes have been a disaster. The UK has been by far the most successful country in Europe, dwarfing the vaccination programmes of all EU countries up to and including the mighty Germany.

Below is the chart we prepared overnight, showing the number of vaccine doses administered in each country to date:-

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge

The EU's vaccine policies and programme have been a disaster and the Commission is to blame

It was the Commission that insisted on taking over Covid from national governments of the EU's member states, as it rushed to play catch-up in the Spring after failing to help Italy when it was the first country in the EU to experience a crisis in its hospitals.

In its desperate attempts to seem relevant - and after a belated realisation that this was an opportunity for the EU to seize even more power from national governments - the Commission persuaded Angela Merkel to let it take over the coordination of the vaccine policies and programmes on behalf of all EU member countries.

Given the quality of the Commissioners involved, and the EU's well-known inability to organise anything important in any reasonable timeframe, this has proved to have been the proverbial 'accident waiting to happen'.

The day of the EU dictators - Friday 29 January

For years we and other Brexit organisations have argued that the EU's institutions are undemocratic, dysfunctional, and ineffective in today's world. For the same years we have been ridiculed by Remainer-Rejoiners.

Perhaps one of the most powerful vindications of our position - on so many levels - came on Friday, 29th January 2021. In its desperate attempts to deflect blame for its lamentable performance in managing a vaccine rollout for the EU, the Commission accelerated and turbo-charged its attacks on the UK and on a half-British pharma company that had offered its vaccines to the EU at cost.

In its rushed incompetence, at around 5pm the Commission issued a diktat which effectively introduced a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. This was the issue which the EU spent years blackmailing and bullying the UK over, fabricated out of nothing, but which had proved to be a great PR exercise for the EU.

It took until nearly midnight before the urgent calls from the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson - neither of whom had been consulted before the Commission took its draconian actions - resulted in the Commission backing down.

What does the EU Commission do?

• Proposes new laws – the only EU body that can
• Manages EU policies and allocates EU funding
• Draws up annual budgets
• Supervises how the money is spent
• Enforces EU law
• Represents the EU internationally

How believable are the EU’s claims for ‘democratic legitimacy’?

The EU Parliament claims that its objective is “to ensure that the EU’s executive body has the democratic legitimacy to act in the interest of Europeans.” It goes on to say that “MEPs elected Ursula von der Leyen as Commission president in July.”

How true is this?

Frau von der Leyen was a last-minute compromise candidate for Commission President when the 27 EU leaders could not agree on anyone else and time had run out. She was then put forward to the EU Parliament in July.

Politburo politics?

British people are accustomed to elections involving more than one candidate. This is not the case when it comes to electing EU Commissioners.

Frau von der Leyen was the ONLY CANDIDATE on the ballot paper – exactly as Jean-Claude Juncker was the only candidate for EU Commission President back in 2014.

In November 2019 in Strasbourg the EU Parliament approved the other 26 candidates making up the EU Commission. The vote was on the EU Commission as a bloc. Over previous weeks some of the MEPs had been able to question the candidates for each role in the Commission. However at the 'election' the EU's 'elected representatives' were presented with just one candidate for each role.

[ Sources: EU Parliament | EU Commission | European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) | European Medicines Agency (EMA) | Heads of Medecines Agency (HMA) | European Research Council (ERC) | World Health Organisation (WHO) | World in Data and country statistics] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 03 Feb 2021

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