Whatever the means, as long as they are legal, we can and should force equal burden of delays.

I guess EU didn't play it the best way from political perspective, since we are now labeled as bad.

Still, I'm personally impressed that EU is actually able to do something of consequence in somewhat short time frame.

It's different--one is an executive action, the other contractual duty--but yes. Moreover, it doesn't solve the problem. The EU wants doses made in the UK. The EU doses have already been exported to the UK.

This whole thing looks incompetent on the EU's part, from the outside. First, the delays in signing. Second, the sloppiness of the contract. And third, the incompetence of the post-problem situation. The EU has something Britain wants--a trade deal. Strike a deal with the UK to get their vaccines. Instead, we have a song and dance, empty threats and name calling.

It's hard to imagine any such deal being countenanced by the UK government. It's clearly in the stronger position here, and after its response to the virus situation has had so many problems in most areas, the handling of the vaccine has so far been a rare but very welcome exception. It seems implausible the government would give up such a huge PR win and instead do something that would surely be represented as risking their citizens' lives or worse, even in the already extremely unlikely event that the EU offered a much better deal than the one just concluded after years of negotiations.

As long as government ministers can confidently confirm that they believe the UK/AZ agreement is solid and enough doses will be available to meet the schedule the government has stated, they can try to maintain a dignified silence on the EU/AZ situation and let it be seen as a dispute over a contract to which the UK is not a party. They have little to gain by getting involved and much to lose.