The last four months have not been a happy time for those in power in Brussels. The unedifying squabbles over vaccine procurement and the sluggish delays to its subsequent roll out have prompted criticism across the continent, with the World Health Organisation calling it ‘unacceptably slow.’ Unsurprisingly, a Bloomberg poll out yesterday found that almost two-thirds of adults believe that being outside the EU helped the UK’s vaccination program to succeed.
Now it appears Ursula von der Leyen and her colleagues have even lost their core support. No less a bonafide Eurocrat than Sir Nick Clegg – a former European Commission staffer prior to his Lib Dem leadership – popped up on LBC radio this morning to take a swipe at the conduct of those in the Berlaymont. Clegg, who was once estimated to have received up to £2.5 million in salaries, allowances and expenses during his time on the EU gravy train, told Nick Ferrari that the European Union had ‘let itself down and millions of Europeans down’ during the last four months.
Clegg, a onetime MEP, said: ‘I think the EU has let itself down, more importantly has let millions of Europeans down by not providing people with vaccines on the scale and with the speed that has been possible in the UK and elsewhere, and that’s elicited, quite understandably, a lot of anger. He continued: ‘Never mind what people say to opinion pollsters in the UK, across the EU people are waiting for their vaccines impatiently’ adding that ‘Clearly something has gone very badly wrong indeed in recent months in the EU.’
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