actually let's look at how all of that nonsense is not just about greg's not going to do such a good job and i'll be 60 that's. why do you have this whole it's way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities greener how can we protect habitats we can make a difference the idea or mental series of local council on g.w. and all mine. no one can teach the european union lesson mr bultitude well christine we are i think. you would succeed this year didn't start well for the european commission its rollout of the covert 19 vaccine has been widely slammed those too little too late but now it's decided to invest millions into researching new covert variants and to

try and get some better headlines i guess this week on brussels is the great commission on margaritas she must move a new initiative be enough to silence the criticism of the commission on the charges of incompetent. marguerite's she was welcome to come exam thank you for having me you're pouring tens of millions of euros into research on new covariance told me this isn't just elaborate p.r. exercise to boost your flagging image of the commission. no it is not it is the response to a genuine war that we have both here in brussels and in the capitals of our union because the mutations are happening and these mutants are practically everywhere so we need. to barrel to our vaccines problem we need to develop this capacity to

anticipate to adapt and facilitate that work. to be able to cope with all these potential threats risk to the audience there's a lot of work going on in this field at the moment anyway the world health organization said in january that it was coordinating a massive amount of research on the same subject and drug companies are of course working on 2nd generation vaccines to take account of these new strains so what are you bringing to the table that's going to be new. we're bringing to the table. speed authorization procedures through our european met since agency that would allow these companies not to research meat from scratch but being able to update the files on the basis of which they're already there vaccines authorized in the european market where bringing money because for sequencing testing and clinical

trials at the scepter scale we need the funding and more more than anybody else we need pressure pressure to everybody involved to anticipate events and. this is something your strong point so far hasn't i mean the issue isn't money we know you've got plenty of money frankly the issue given the painfully slow rollout of existing vaccines is whether your competent as a commission to manage all these projects are you. i think the story has not been told of the european vaccination strategy the success of our plan will have to be assessed not at the beginning of the process but at the end of it we have pre-purchase 2300000000 doses of vaccine for all europeans we have bought the 25 percent of the global supply we have already dispatched

30000000 doses in europe and we have already vaccinated 22000000 europeans this is not. lack of success this is success in the making our own existence the she announced last week the commission president let's face it was forced into a humiliating admission but the e.u. was as she put it not where it wanted to be in combating the virus this after hailing the rollout as a great european success story but it hasn't been has it fact is you were late in granting vaccine authorizations too optimistic about the production of the vaccine to my even believing that all the doses would arrive on time you were 3 months behind the u.k. in ordering some of these vaccines you admitted all this this was all admitted but there was no apology why why was there this apology this is the european union in the european union politicians do not authorize boxing's they don't have knowledge

eyes either do have an independent regulatory agency. and i think the process we are not in the course this is not a sprint it's a mar now as to the question of apology that i believe the humiliating part you do to describe but this was something the president stated the obvious that these companies with whom we had contractual relations and they assumed contractual obligations were not ready at the beginning of these contracts to put the capacity the contracts would have required and they are sorting these delays out as we speak so the apology was an apology of the moment of the start of the contracts i'm telling you again if you will succeed in our still a vaccination strategy the fact is mr sheen as the people will have died in europe waiting for you to take decisions and get them the vaccines that could have saved their life someone should take responsibility for that and resign or is there no

accountability in this commission of yours. we are fully accountable to the european parliament to which we which we invested doesn't alter a year ago and the european parliament is fully in line it's are all governments or member states in making this european programme of oxidation a success i leave it to your imagination what would have happened if instead of the european strategy member states would have gone it individually fighting each other over vaccines that the big member states would have swapped the market the smaller member states would never have access to the vaccines so we are making this work for everyone and it's working believe me when you say this but this week the senior liberal m.e.p. and former belgian prime minister gave a half star accused. fund their line of prolonging drastically the covert pandemic on mainland europe at

a huge cost to lives and the economy he called the management of the bank deming a fiasco and said after 2 months the rollout of vaccines is dramatically low in europe so you're painting a very different picture from the one that members of the european parliament are seeing you're in trouble if figures like miss the 1st half start are turning against you in this way. you are quoting one of the 751 members i call her fathers if you like i don't know either but you should call the majority to make the point that the european parliament is against the commissioner of exit strategy you know in brussels there is what they call the intellectual appeal of pessimists somehow to be trendy to be more to make headlines have to be a pessimist in the brussels bubble well i do not believe in this school of thought and monotonous and i repeat what i told you earlier this european strategy is working at the end of the process you will see that will be one of the most

remarkable european success ever well that's what you say about key figures are losing patience with you in germany for instance the chief minister of bavaria marcus accused the commission of lacking the necessary sense of urgency and following the typical normal bureaucratic e.u. procedure he's right isn't he people have a right to expect better from you don't get. of course people have a right to expect better but i would also distance myself from comments coming from a country like germany where the election is already underway and where many key players are jogging for position i handle the elections and they always find very convenient to target brussels on basically everything you know so when you if you find it convenient to give me a success story which hasn't yet happened because you're under political pressure at the money on the huge political pressure because of the role of the vaccines you

know and for the history of failure dealing with this pandemic i mean last year there were admissions from underlying that the fundamental purpose of the e.u. which was unified decision making has been sorely lacking she said at the time when europe really needed to be there for each other too many initially looked out for themselves when europe needed an all for one spirit too many initially gave an only for me response the commission is the european union's executive if you can't unite this union isn't it time to hand over to some people who count i would agree with you that the beginning in the beginning of the pandemic our member states last march reacted a bit like individuals individuals stormed the supermarkets and bought toilet paper and passed on hoping that they will survive the mc member states closed borders they produce the export dance they try to compete against each other but that only

lasted 3 to 4 weeks after really members are still closing borders germany close quarter last week in southern borders causing traffic jams back into italy ignoring the ignoring the justice commissioner knows the warn that it could lead to. being disrupted this now concerns still member states at the time it were all states the point i was trying to make before you interrupted me. is precisely that we are given the interdependence of our single markets the integration of our supply chains we can do thinks together only we can do things better only if we do them together and this is happening as we speak and again let me tell you that from borders to public procurement to pulling money for research to buying vaccines all this is part of a common european response which is working well you say it's working and i've quoted you people who don't think it is working how do we know for instance that

there won't be a repeat of the january 30th fiasco way of commission panicked about the shortage of vaccines and threaten to kick a clause in the northern ireland protocol but would have blocked the vaccines from reaching northern ireland the decision was rather reversed after 10 days in an international outcry you're not telling me that that was part of your success story are you the best the measure was not. related to northern ireland or article 6 in protocol the measure which was a valid one was a scheme for an export or a station procedure that would allow the commish to know what's happening with that seems produced in the european market but it will be impacted northern ireland and it will have authority or i don't know how in protocols there was a negative impact on the on the northern irish border which was remedied i would say instantly on the same date and for which president underlined herself admitted

that this was an administrative mistake that happened against a very broad measure which we needed and we certainly need by that time to know who exports where but scenes important produced in europe under contract obligations with europe you said it was an administrative mistake whose fault was that. well sometimes you know when you have to go in to alter sonic fast procedures because when you put in place an export authorization scheme you don't have the time a week or 10 days to organize things you have to do it in a few hours now there are so whose fault it was who's going to the people going to take responsibility for this the president herself took responsibility publicly or be at or be at the european parliament twice last week she said that she assumes personal responsibility for the administrative mistake that happened on that day and which was relevant rectified to our slate. so how do we know it's not going to

happen again one of these administrative mistakes i mean this this caused an enormous amount of diplomatic backlash for you didn't the irish government wasn't informed in advance nor the british government nor the northern ireland assembly island's own ambassador called it a very serious mistake how do we know you're not going to do it again because what lessons have you learned from that well let me repeat that when the commission takes market related measures on export authorizations we have to go very very fast otherwise these measures will be. violated by events on the ground so this isn't to have been taken on in an afternoon and i tried to explain to you that these were decisions that were valid because we need this market export export of radiation systems to know how the vaccines are being exported and to whom from europe the

fact that that mistake had happened which was corrected immediately does not mean anything especially when the president of the commission herself took it on herself and publicly in front of the european parliament assured them we base that this will not happen again you say there isn't mean anything but it smacks of chaos right at the heart of your commission doesn't it crossed wires panicky decisions no thought for consequences no found hand in control you proud of all this look i can spend also too much time using objectives but i belong to a political school of thought that i'm not more interested in now hns and inverts i don't think that you know value judgements in the confort of the studio can sort out a very complicated situation we are fighting fire in a once in a generation threat to humanity and to europe and we'll do everything that it takes to get it right and we are getting it right. so prefer to be positive to be

optimistic and look with confidence future it's not just with the pandemic that we've seen missteps as we saw them the other day when your foreign policy chief you as a barrel visited moscow many m.p.'s m.e.p. said he allowed himself to be totally humiliated and achieved absolutely nothing last week 81 members of the european parliament called on the commission president to fire him should he be fired do you think again you are courting a relatively small number of family peace the european parliament has 751 members and the majority for the parliament to take a stance is half plus one it wasn't my question i asked you whether you have it has been fabulous or i'm answering your question before the high representative or l. visited moscow do you know do happen to know how many ministers of foreign affairs

of member states had already. the answer is that's a no man's neither here nor there is something that several countries in poland on the whole take states told him not to go why were you present their warnings not listened to 1st of all he went on the basis of an agreement by the ministers of foreign affairs council to go to we were surprised to see that no one bothered to criticize the 19 ministers who went to moscow before him but everyone rush to attack again brussels scapegoating brussels and blaming everything on brussels it's again very convenient very trendy it makes you popular it produces headlines but it doesn't sort out the problems we are in the business of sorting out problems but you didn't sort out any problems and he didn't sort out any problems because he went with no fixed agenda then

a well it's easier to gauge intersection simbo engagement sessions at foreign minister level that's what diplomats are supposed to do prepare high level meetings to the smallest detail and find something the ministers can agree on burrell 40 knew better and he didn't didn't let's see about that let's see how the noise around this visit materializes in terms of policy i'm not sure that everything has to be judged on the basis of what happened in a press conference there were meetings before the press conference and after the press conference and the foreign affairs ministers of the european union are meeting next week to assess globally the situation and move accordingly in a collective month so the story has not yet been top of this well it's going to be interesting to see how you move in a coordinated manner because half the problem is that the seems incapable of unified action when it comes to russia you couldn't even issue a collective statement after the poisoning of the opposition leader alexander vanny

because it was vetoed by the hungarian leader viktor orban so you one more example want to have a disunited multilateral body that can't agree on clear objectives. sorry to break the news but the european union does not have the capacity to decide on foreign policy on the basis of qualified majority foreign policy is still probably the only one together with the only policy where you name it. and you know limited allows everyone to stop everybody else so of course we can sell flagellate and regret and love meant that the founding fathers and governments sailed to break this last european integration introducing majority voting in foreign policy but that's the situation so you are describing a situation which is given and on the basis of which we tried to do as much and as

best as we can tell it on the back of foreign policy chief then the problem is well on foreign policy chief but you don't have a unified foreign policy was appointed by job let me remind you that we are already have sanctions against russia on the start of the we are already reviewing periodic lease sanctions that have been great unanimously and we do have many other instruments and decisions that have been agreed unanimously but of course we do not have qualified majority that would have allowed us to move differently this is the situation and we can spend time lamenting it or regretting it but i don't think we can change it at this stage mr margarita's china has also benefited from the e.u. the lack of a consistent foreign policy hasn't it you you trumpet human rights as a central value to the european union but you threw those considerations to the wind when you signed an investment deal with beijing last month and you the only

assurance from china about human rights was a meaningless and totally on in forcible commitment to make sustained and continuous efforts to ratify intervent international conventions on forced labor. in other words they do their best no timescale maybe 10 years maybe a 100 who knows but why don't you admit it you got nothing from the chinese do nothing but ok again living the objectives sides on this earth nothing is a noun. or substance of this of your question with this agreement the european union of paint a level of protection or investment by european companies in china that our american partners or friends already have so this was not an apocalyptic mill think it was aligning european interests to a level of protection that other western powers already enjoyed with china so i'm i

think it was a necessary agreement a welcome agreement and an agreement that creates more jobs and more certainty for the company set for the economy and i would also take issue with your assertion that this was done at the back of human rights precisely a spark of this agreement there are concrete references to the need to ratify the ilo agreements on child labor or there are relevant considerations of the situation in young the european union will continue to engage with china in a principled and at the same time problematic way you didn't impress the european parliament did you there was scathing condemnation of the resolution which was unanimously passed which said but by rushing to reach this agreement while not taking concrete action against ongoing a grave human rights violations in hong kong change on province and tibet the e.u.

risks undermining its credibility as a global human rights act or the chair of the parliament's delegation variations with china rinehart political office said it's ridiculous for the e.u. to try selling vat as a success. you didn't you didn't convince them we no one can teach the european union lessons about democracy and respect of human rights we are the world's epicenter of democracy and good governance we're a look at problem we're going hungry and can you honestly say that can you honestly say that let me rest let me play discuss hong kong and then i'm happy to go to poland hungary and hong kong where gravely concerned the situation there is against everything that we stand for we have repeatedly expressed both at the commission at the council of foreign affairs ministers are our position and the situation against the democracy pro-democracy fighters and activists candidates and these concerns

have been put to president xi by the european leaders in their meeting on the 30th of this just just wordsmiths the margarita's you had leverage real leverage with this. financial agreement with this trade deal with china and you didn't use that leverage we used it to the best possible outcome at a level comparable 8 to what our american friends did when dealing with china so this was not something that. failed to understand we lived up to our standards that the references i a low resolution to child labor situation in syria established let's just look briefly at your claim that the european union is the most advanced model of democracy in society in the modern world seems like a classic exaggeration when you look at poland and hungary. according to human

rights organizations human rights watch for instance says 10000000 e.u. citizens in hungary are effectively living under or thora tarion rule in poland the government is accused by the self of violating the union's laws undermining judicial independence in bulgaria torture is rife along with massive corruption at all levels of government how does that fit into the most advanced model of democracy in society in the morning world the rule of law and the respect for the rule of law democracy and fundamental rights are the jewels in the crown of the european union their non-negotiable. i do not deny that in certain parts of our geography the the way the history and authority of her attorneys carry and it still has. a resilient presence if you like and we are now for some years working very very consistently and i would say aggressive

to remedy these but colleges in making clear that the rule of law has to be respected by all members states at all levels using their telling you how garia that for 14 years but instead of doing it on li but i threaten ink the nuclear button off our article so many of the treaty we have now recently introduced a new approach through a european rule of law nick is that allows us on a yearly basis to scan examine the situation in all our member states from the point of view of rule of law in gauging dialogue absolutely and instead of correcting making sure that we shape the situation the way we like it we have introduced and mechanism on conditionality with respect the rule of law in the next e.u. budget we have very many open infringements i understand these things result with

my record that we're running out of time unfortunately we run out of time although this ecosystem will produce change ok thank you very much for being on conflict and thank you for your time thank you for having. me.

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