EU is ‘very publicly flexing its muscles’ in row with AstraZeneca |

Just as the European Commission was confirming its plans to tighten the rules around vaccine exports, the Belgian prime minister was talking, just down the road.

He announced that the country would be going back into a sort of lockdown for four weeks – schools closing, non-essential shops open by appointment only, hairdressers shutting their doors. Stuff with which we are wearily familiar.

The two briefings weren’t designed to go together, but you could see the link. In Belgium, as in much of Western Europe, the number of infections is…