Marek Ast was commenting on the EU’s inability to force vaccine companies to adhere to previously signed agreements. So far, the companies are not paying much heed to the European Commission’s demands.
“It seems that the EU has once again shown its weakness in the face of yet another serious crisis,” he stated.
Ast explained that the EU is not a superstate and that Poland had entered the EU thinking it was an organization that could help solve different kinds of issues on an international level.
He noted that while EU authorities are eager to teach others about the rule of law, they rarely rise to challenges such as the pandemic or the migration crisis. There were no actions taken by the EU during the first pandemic wave, and a similar situation is now taking place with vaccine purchases.
MP Ast emphasized that given the EU’s lack of success in negotiating with pharmaceutical companies, Poland should count on itself, and the government should speak with the companies individually to ensure a stable delivery of vaccines to Poland.
He admitted that while the idea of a joint EU agreement for vaccines was good, its execution has been tragic. EU authorities simply proved themselves to be incompetent.
“I think this is another lesson for member states. We should really get back to the roots, to the rules on which the EU was founded, not try to force through the creation of an EU super-government that would deal with different Union affairs because this clearly isn’t working out,” he said, pointing to the EU’s failures in 2020 and its current vaccine supply problems.
Ast explained that the way to return to the EU’s roots is to continue highlighting failures such as the vaccine crisis to show that the current bureaucratized EU structure is inefficient and failing in the most vital tasks.
He stated that if the European Commission, which represents EU states, is failing in such an important matter as vaccine supplies, then it is very likely to have similar results in other cases as well.
