, Columnist
The EU Is Much Less Wonderful Than It Thinks
Europe can no longer shine on the global stage by virtue of contrast with wicked Donald Trump and blundering Boris Johnson.
The comparisons are getting tougher.
Photographer: PHILIPPE WOJAZER/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
Ursula von der Leyen did the right thing last week after she’d tried everything else. The European Commission president finally apologized for the failings of the continent-wide vaccine procurement scheme.
It followed an unseemly few weeks of battle over the vaccine, during which Von der Leyen scapegoated the Anglo-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca Plc for supply holdups and threatened to close the Irish land border to imports of vaccines from the European Union. Even Brussels, which is loath to admit fault, finally conceded that its vaccine rollout has been unsatisfactory.