I haven’t the time (or the inclination) to read all of ClaireTGOld’s links. But here’s a passage from one of them::
“Similarly, the member states were in no way obliged to take part in the EU’s joint vaccine procurement scheme. The EU has very limited competences for public health under its founding treaties: it can take action only to “support, coordinate or supplement the actions of the Member States”. The EU member states in this case voluntarily decided to opt into the joint procurement scheme. If one or more of them had decided to follow the UK’s path and procure its own vaccines, no one would have stopped them.”
Here's an answer I prepared earlier. It is the last response to this question:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1840337-3.html
“As an aside, if the UK was able to make its own approval, no other EU country did so unilaterally and that’s because the EU made it clear that the vaccine development, authorisation and rollout would be on an EU wide basis. So it is fairly plain that, had we still been EU members, we would have been sucked into that edict whether we had the powers to opt out or not.”
And on to a little snippet from the European Medicines Agency (EMA):
https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-recommends-first-covid-19-vaccine-authorisation-eu#:~:text=EMA%20recommends%20first%20COVID%2D19%20vaccine%20for%20authorisation%20in%20the%20EU,-Share&text=Comirnaty%20is%20now%20authorised%20across,Commission%20on%2021%20December%202020.
“EMA has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorisation for the vaccine Comirnaty, developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in people from 16 years of age. EMA’s scientific opinion paves the way for the first marketing authorisation of a COVID-19 vaccine in the EU by the European Commission, with all the safeguards, controls and obligations this entails.”
“The safety and effectiveness of the vaccine will continue to be monitored as it is used across the Member States, through the EU pharmacovigilance system and additional studies by the company and by European authorities.”
It is quite clear from the above (and what was said by EU politicians at the time) that nobody could be in much doubt that the EU was going to control the approval process and rollout. They made it quite clear that no country would be allowed to steal a march on another in either approval or rollout. They tried to extend their reach to the UK, even threatening to close the Irish border to prevent early supplies being shipped to the UK. So please don’t insult my intelligence by suggesting that, had the UK still been an EU member, it would have been permitted to go it alone with a vaccine programme.
//We could have made the exact same decision, rolling out the vaccine at the exact same pace, while still in the EU.//
I could say “utter cobblers” but I’m far too polite.