I don’t have any problem with the act of stockpiling, as its kind of necessary for a vaccine rollout. But to want stockpiling but not have it approved yet? What is the reasoning for lack of approval? (go for it @Kopstar 
.)
WHO would need to be a very different organization, with very different leadership, but agreed on the fundamental idea. The real danger now is happening in two developing nations with a tiny fraction of the world’s relevant resources focused on it, while the heavy hitters of the developed world are all looking inward in one way or another.
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Seems to me that what you should focus on is no “order sequencing” and the contract specifically mentioning “4 production sites”, instead of repeatedly highlighting that the initial journalist she quoted had misquoted, we get that. It is difficult enough to filter information sometimes, but when professional journalists quote sources wrong, both you and I could have run with it. Because a journalist isn’t supposed to get an actual quote wrong.
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Von Der Leyden is a big part of the problem, even if she has been misquoted in part. The contract simply doesn’t say what she claims it does. It is very clear that the definition of the EU is different in various clauses, insane though that may be. The UK clauses are explicitly included in one single clause, and excluded otherwise. She is retroactively insisting that definition in one clause limited to that clause by the language in that clause should apply to the whole contract.
In AZ’s position, I would be fairly comfortable going to litigation at this point.
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But why is the EU demanding that the contract be made official ? Seems odd if they don’t have a point ?
As to Von Der Leyen, she is a loyal party politician that is afraid of making waves. She showed that as minister of defence, she did an outrageously horrible job, German Land Forces could barely field a functional armoured brigade when she was done. She listened not to military advice, only to political advice and bleed them dry of reserve parts.
That she got this job has to do with internal politics and not her ability to execute well, unless execute means bleeding something dry enough to get mummified.
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They don’t have the legal expertise TAN has.
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Well, what VDL was quoted as saying, before the contract was published, was shown to be entirely false when reading the APA.
Also, interestingly, it doesn’t just mention 4 production sites as she stated but 5. 2 of which are in the UK and the other 3 in the EU.
As you will also note, once the APA was published I have entirely focused on what the agreement actually says and how it is likely to be interpreted.
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Having personally negotiated with the EU, the fact that they are willing to stick to a position is by no means a guarantee that they are right. Inertia is an incredibly powerful force for the EC, particularly where the alternative is to admit a failing.
The contract is now publicly available, albeit redacted, and the language is the language. The EU has been advancing an aggressive interpretation that is not supportable by the contract, and in some places is directly contradicted by terms that could only have been in their in the first place because of their own insistence. The assertion that Best Efforts disappear from the agreement as soon as the vaccine is developed is patently absurd.
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Must be a coincidence that I’ve subsequently read the opinions of leading QCs who share my interpretations. Getting lucky again, I guess.
But Livvy could not easily have known that, which was my point. If you were reading a journalists twitter account and they directly quoted, you as well could have used that as a source initially. I could, and I filter pretty well.
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and of course, all of us have a political interest in ensuring that we eat none of the blame that is building?
The EC has a clear incentive to misrepresent the responsibility here. Has anyone at the EC held their hand up and offered an explanation of why the contracting cycle was so slow and focused on price?
I didn’t say that Livvy had been misleading (on this occasion). I said that the tweets she posted were. I was blaming the author, not the poster.
No guarantee, correct. But it is strange to me. I want that contract published, and since the EU wants it published, I am leaning towards it being plausible that they have good points.
It is published. Comments now are coming from the terms of the contract.
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I can only surmise that you haven’t read the observations made in this thread then?
Isn’t it Belgian law?
It looked a bit like that due to history, as history sometimes makes context.
Anyway, looking forward to see that contract published.
Also, I have 50 posts more to read, so got to scroll up again. God how I miss a forum with pages, this is so user unfriendly when you are in a discussion !
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Yes, that is a valid caveat - although I haven’t yet seen the interpretations posted in here by me or by several QCs contradicted by anyone that practices in Belgium. If there are any, please share.
See below, and yes !!! I have not. Again, this forum is not user friendly for debates. You have to scroll 50-60 posts up again ! It’s awful like that. Love everything else, but lack of pages is just difficult for me to handle.
FWIW, here is a link to a page where the agreement can be downloaded - bottom of the page
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