Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner in charge of Health, during an online news conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday. The EU and AstraZeneca agreed on Friday to make public a heavily redacted version of their Covid-19 vaccine agreement, which lies at the heart of a dispute over how many shots the pharmaceutical company should be supplying the EU's 27 nations. AP Photo
Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner in charge of Health, during an online news conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday. The EU and AstraZeneca agreed on Friday to make public a heavily redacted version of their Covid-19 vaccine agreement, which lies at the heart of a dispute over how many shots the pharmaceutical company should be supplying the EU's 27 nations. AP Photo
Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner in charge of Health, during an online news conference at the EU headquarters in Brussels on Friday. The EU and AstraZeneca agreed on Friday to make public
Echoes from the Napoleonic Wars can be heard in EU's vaccine export row
For all the ideals that underpin a peace project like the European Union, the traits of the continent's violent past are closer to the surface than we think
For months, the principle of universal access to coronavirus vaccines has been a globally shared goal. Yet on Friday, the European Union adopted powers to ban the export of vaccines from member states.
The decision immediately triggered fears that the global supply chains for vaccine production could suffer a "black swan" disruption from what was portrayed as a limited regulatory move. Not just finished product but inputs and sensitive equipment were also blockaded.
Since the launch of vaccines to fight Covid-19, the pressures for access have been too great for the European leadership to handle. Temptation to adopt the me-first approach and junk universality became all too real.
At a viral vaccine summit last year, all the European leaders pledged themselves to the highest standards. Commitments were made to global bodies with initiatives such as Gavi and Covax. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's catch-cry – "with this pandemic, none of us are safe until all of us are safe” – was applauded.
Mr Guterres' native continent has descended into a frenzy of feigns and panics reminiscent of behaviour under a very different world order. In fact, Europe is now jockeying in a kind of reversion to an ugly mean. The saga resembles feverish phases and swirling loyalties that powered the Napoleonic Wars, a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire against European powers formed into various coalitions.
Last year, the vaccines were in research when the EU bound all its members into a pact to procure them for the whole bloc. As months elapsed, officials in Brussels were in charge of negotiating purchases for Germany as well as Portugal and Luxembourg. It now seems strange to recall that the UK government came under fire for opting out of the scheme and deciding to go it alone.
Two main problems emerged with the European approach. It decided to use a supermarket chain-purchasing strategy. It held out for lower costs and assumed that its bargaining power would get it preferential delivery terms. It allocated just €2.7 million ($3.2m) for the first-order schedule. It also decided to reserve relatively few doses from German manufacturers BioNTech and spilt capacity for a French-made vaccine.
The rollout of the first vaccines almost immediately exposed the fragility of the rule.
An unseemly contractual dispute with AstraZeneca quickly turned into a political row. The EU's treatment of the Swedish-British pharmaceutical giant allowed the UK to leap far ahead of Europe in mass vaccination. Almost eight million, more than 14 per cent of the population, have received at least the first dose. While Europe has now approved the AstraZeneca/Oxford treatment, it is infuriated by delays in the delivery schedule. AstraZeneca, a thoroughly European corporation, has been accused of working for the other side.
The 1812 Battle of Borodino. The battle was a part of the Napoleonic Wars, a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire against European powers formed into various coalitions. Getty Images
In an editorial, Der Spiegel magazine declared that vaccines are "the most important" global resource. The more scarce they are, the harder the struggle is because the value lies far ahead of data, gold or weapons, it said. That has led to the torrid developments of last week during which the EU forfeited plenty of international political capital by taking powers to ban the export of the vaccine.
It even briefly invoked a last-resort clause in the just-minted Brexit deal to suspend the Northern Ireland protocol blowing up a row with London over just who controls trade between Britain and Ireland. It subsequently reversed its decision.
Just beyond these disputes, the pharmaceutical companies are acting like large standing militias in the Napoleonic era. The French firm, Sanofi, which has not yet brought its vaccine to development phase, has agreed to manufacture the one by Pfizer/BioNTech to ensure more doses come online. The Switzerland-based drug maker, Novartis, has also signed up to make the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The country has been exempted from the EU ban on exports. Meanwhile, another French vaccine firm – Valneva – has thrown its lot in with perfidious Albion and opened a manufacturing plant in Scotland.
In the heat of the battle, all sides share the same goal and want it for themselves.
The Iron Rolling Mill painting is found in the collection of the Staatliche Museen, Berlin – one of the many images depicting the Industrial Revolution. Getty Images
In the heat of the battle, all sides share the same goal and want it for themselves
As the historian Christopher Herold noted, the war against Napoleon was won by Russia, Austria and Prussia. However, to the final victor went the spoils: “England won the last battle and she won the peace.” The Napoleonic conflict was a nearly two-decade power struggle that ebbed and flowed across Europe. It is no exaggeration to say that its battlelines set the frontiers for the Industrial Revolution and thus shaped the modern world.
To view that chapter in Europe's history in terms of the rise and defeat of Napoleon is not really instructive to what the consequences were. There were at least seven major coalitions formed to fight the battles. And Europeans are understandably sensitive about the continent’s reputation for staging internecine wars. The names of the conflicts tell their own stories: Hundred Years' War, Thirty Years' War, Napoleon Wars, First World War and Second World War.
The desire to create a peace project unrivalled in human history after the Second World War was genuine and an unalloyed achievement for all the generations since. But for all the ideals that underpin the European Union, the traits of history are closer to the surface than we think.
Damien McElroy is the London bureau chief at The National
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
GroupA: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Power: 272hp at 6,400rpm
Torque: 331Nm from 5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.7L/100km
On sale: now
Price: Dh149,000
'Project Power'
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
Trees: 1,500 to be planted, replacing 300 felled ones, with veteran oaks protected
Lake: Brown's centrepiece to be cleaned of silt that makes it as shallow as 2.5cm
Biodiversity: Bat cave to be added and habitats designed for kingfishers and little grebes
Flood risk: Longer grass, deeper lake, restored ponds and absorbent paths all meant to siphon off water
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Bio
Born in Dibba, Sharjah in 1972.
He is the eldest among 11 brothers and sisters.
He was educated in Sharjah schools and is a graduate of UAE University in Al Ain.
He has written poetry for 30 years and has had work published in local newspapers.
He likes all kinds of adventure movies that relate to his work.
His dream is a safe and preserved environment for all humankind.
His favourite book is The Quran, and 'Maze of Innovation and Creativity', written by his brother.
German intelligence warnings
2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250
Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania Publisher: EA Sports Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S Rating: 3.5/5
World record transfers
1. Kylian Mbappe - to Real Madrid in 2017/18 - €180 million (Dh770.4m - if a deal goes through)
2. Paul Pogba - to Manchester United in 2016/17 - €105m
3. Gareth Bale - to Real Madrid in 2013/14 - €101m
4. Cristiano Ronaldo - to Real Madrid in 2009/10 - €94m
5. Gonzalo Higuain - to Juventus in 2016/17 - €90m
6. Neymar - to Barcelona in 2013/14 - €88.2m
7. Romelu Lukaku - to Manchester United in 2017/18 - €84.7m
8. Luis Suarez - to Barcelona in 2014/15 - €81.72m
9. Angel di Maria - to Manchester United in 2014/15 - €75m
10. James Rodriguez - to Real Madrid in 2014/15 - €75m