[Sephiroth]

It's always worth digging into what the European press are saying.
This one is excellent. It definitively shows the degree of dither on the EC's part. I hope all of Europe has read this.

https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/...6986.bild.html

A letter proves that the German Minister of Health, Jens Spahn (40, CDU) and his counterparts in France, Italy, and the Netherlands had to hand over the procurement of the life-saving vaccine to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (62). They had to humbly apologize for their efforts to obtain the vaccine. This letter is exclusively available to BILD.
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The letter says: “Unfortunately, the parallel approach of the Alliance caused concerns. Therefore we believe that it is of utmost importance to have a common single and joint approach towards the various pharmaceutical companies (…) We also agree that speed is of the essence in this case. So we deem it very useful if the COM [Commission] takes the lead in this process. Of course, we are more than willing to continue our further support and expertise.”

The letter is date "June 2020"; no idea why there isn't a day given. I hate that - people often do that in documentation and Guvmin certainly does that.