Debate: The EU's role in combating the COVID- pandemic: how to vaccinate the world
Date: WEDNESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2021
Speaker: Anže Logar
Language: EN

However, nobody is safe until everyone is safe. We have seen the value of standing united in tackling common global challenges and the value of international solidarity in ensuring vaccine coverage around the world. The European Union is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs a vaccine gets it. It is essential to ensure vaccination for the most vulnerable of the population in low and middle-income countries, and to do so at an affordable cost – not only because it is the right thing to do, but also for our own sake.  I’m proud to say that the EU has played a leading role in the international efforts to provide COVID-19 vaccines across the world. Through the Team Europe COVID-19 global response approach, the EU has contributed over three billion euros to COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access), bringing us closer to the COVAX objective of delivering at least 1.8 billion doses to 92 lower and middle-lower income countries by the end of 2021. Through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, the EU has made support available for the delivery of both vaccines and ancillary material. Additionally, the EU continues to be the largest global exporter of COVID—19 vaccines, having exported close to one billion vaccine doses to 59 countries around the globe. It should not go unnoticed that Europe was willing to share half of our vaccine production with the rest of the world.  The EU is determined to support an increase in COVID-19 vaccine production, as well as a broader geographical distribution of manufacturing capacity in order to meet global needs. For example, Team Europe is investing EUR 1 billion to ramp up mRNA (Messenger RNA) production capacity in Africa. Activities in several sub-Saharan African countries are already underway in South Africa, Senegal and Rwanda.  Vaccine sharing is crucial in assisting low and medium-income level countries in carrying out their vaccination programmes. The EU must show leadership, heading multilateral and global efforts in vaccine distribution. We have delivered to Europe, and now we must deliver to the world.  In May this year, the European Council already stated a target of donating at least 100 million doses by the end of the year, but this has been topped up by commitments made by the Commission and Member States individually.  Currently, total EU commitments reach over 500 million doses until mid—2022. Unfortunately, a series of unexpected bottlenecks and obstacles seriously hampered deliveries, meaning that we have not yet reached our initial ambitions. This is now steadily improving – from four million doses donated by mid-July to 20 million doses by mid-September. Donations delivered by the EU stand now at close to 100 million doses. With a substantial and guaranteed supply of vaccines at Member States’ disposal, EU deliveries should pick up speed.  I’m well aware of your calls for the temporary waiving of international intellectual property protection obligations for COVID-19-related vaccines and medical products. The EU is engaging in dialogue in the context of the WTO and other international fora to explore how patent pooling, licensing initiatives and vaccine knowledge-sharing platforms can best support affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 production. Relying on a voluntary solution for the sharing of intellectual property knowhow and data is seen as a promising way to ensure worldwide access to critical products for diagnosing, treating and preventing COVID-19, including vaccines.  We must seize this opportunity together, as a global community, to address the crisis. In our international solidarity, we must be guided by fairness, transparency and inclusiveness. I can assure you of one thing, the EU will continue leading the multilateral response to the pandemic, ensuring that no one is left behind.