Debate: Vaccines and therapeutics in the context of Covid-
Date: THURSDAY, 14 MAY 2020
Speaker: Margaritis Schinas
Language: EN

Let me start on the quest for resilience. There is no doubt whatsoever that Europe has to draw the lessons of this pandemic. It’s evident, it’s written on the wall. This is something that society will impose on all policy-making at all levels. As far as the quest for resilience at the EU level is concerned, let me repeat what I said earlier. We have to bridge this asymmetry of expectations between what Europeans want from Europe in areas where Europe has nothing in terms of legal competence. This is a major issue. This contaminates public opinion and projects Europe in a negative light. I really hope that this will be, together with my colleagues, one of our main lines of action in the months and years to come. Also on the quest for resilience, we have to make sure that the recovery initiative sheds light and reinforces a self-standing health problem that is able to perform not only under regular, normal circumstances, but is also designed to face up to major sanitary crises and pandemics. This is also a major challenge in front of us. Finally, many of you also raised the issues of production, back to the EU, pricing, strategical autonomy, the place of Europe in the world and geopolitics. When it comes to pharmaceuticals and all these questions, I want to assure that they will be addressed in our pharmaceutical strategy communication, which I will be presenting to you, together with Commissioner Kyriakides, later this year. Let me now come to – and finish –the other cluster of issues of concern to you, which is what happens once we have the vaccine, how we make sure that access is fair, equitable and widespread distribution is available to all Europeans and the rest of the world. I think there are three options for us, a three—point strategy that will allow us to act effectively in this respect. First, we need to ensure immediate access to vaccine supplies. For this, we do have instruments to be deployed, namely we can create an EU stockpile of vaccines, serving as an immediate response through the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, we can organise an EU joint procurement scheme, which will be secure purchase commitments in a stable framework, and the Commission could also procure directly, on behalf of Member States, vaccines making use of the Emergency Support Instrument. This was about immediate actions. Second, regarding secure production, we are already in close contact with industry and we are exploring together with them concrete measures such as public-private partnerships to increase manufacturing capacity or to advance purchase agreements to ensure production. Thirdly, delivery. In the beginning we might need some prioritisation. This is precisely the objective of the European immunisation strategy that I was referring to in my opening statement. Such an immunisation strategy could set priority strands for certain segments of the population, but we will also need to ensure access worldwide because, as long as the virus exists, no one is safe. This is again precisely the purpose of our global leadership in the framework of the pledging conference that should not end on 23 May, when we have this critical mass of financing to speed up the production of vaccines. But we will also have a role, after 23 May, to make sure that the rest of the world and especially those parts of the world that have more vulnerable health systems, like Africa or Latin America, will not be left out of this development.