Debate: Conclusions of the special meeting of the European Council on  and  May
Date: WEDNESDAY, 9 JUNE 2021
Speaker: Ursula von der Leyen
Language: DE

Heute möchte ich Ihnen einen Überblick geben über die nächsten Schritte, die wir global gehen, um diese Krise endlich hinter uns zu lassen. Dabei möchte ich insbesondere über Ergebnisse informieren. Zunächst einmal die Ergebnisse unseres G20-Gesundheitsgipfels in Rom und dann natürlich des EU-Sondergipfels einige Tage später. Und ich möchte über die Initiativen sprechen, die wir mit unseren Freunden beim G7-Gipfel Ende der Woche in Cornwall planen und dann auch nächsten Dienstag, wenn Charles Michel und ich den amerikanischen Präsidenten Joe Biden zum Gipfel in Brüssel empfangen. Diese Treffen unterstreichen nicht nur den multilateralen Ansatz, den wir immer in der Krise durchgehalten haben – das war nicht einfach, aber wir haben ihn durchgehalten –, aber diese Treffen sind natürlich auch eine sehr, sehr gute Gelegenheit, um zu zeigen, dass unser transatlantisches Bündnis erneuert ist, dass es stark ist und dass es gut ist für die Menschen sowohl in den USA als auch in Europa. Our immediate focus in all these meetings is, of course, on beating COVID-19 everywhere, ending the pandemic and rebuilding our economies. The dominant topic in all the meetings and summits we’ve had together, and also in those ahead of us, is vaccines and equal and fair access to vaccines globally.  That is why Mario Draghi and I convened the G20 Global Health Summit –on the one hand, for the lessons learned, and on the other hand, for concrete pledges. In their own declaration, the leaders gave a very strong signal. They had three main points in the G20 Rome Declaration. First of all, they committed to boosting production capacity in low- and middle-income countries, and I will come back to this later. Then, of course, the second topic was tackling bottlenecks in the supply chains. Indeed, if you look at the Rome Declaration, you’ll see it’s a plaidoyer for seamless flows of vaccines and components. We know that we’re not there yet, but the Rome Declaration marked the very first time that there was a commitment towards that, and we committed to investing in a global surveillance and early warning system, knowing that we had failed in this regard at the beginning of the pandemic.  But, as I’ve said, in the short term the dominant topic is vaccine supply in low- and middle-income countries, and there are three strands we are following up. The first one is indeed COVAX. It’s good that we have COVAX. As Charles Michel said, the European Union was one of the main founders of COVAX. Up to EUR 3 billion has been invested in COVAX by pledge from Team Europe so far. But, at the moment, money is not so much the problem with COVAX; it’s more access to vaccines in kind. Therefore, in addition, Team Europe has pledged to donate at least 100 million doses of vaccines by the end of the year. Moving to the second strand, I’m convinced we have to engage the private sector more in this regard. At the health summit, we worked with our industrial partners and it was good to see that the industrial partners committed publicly to delivering 1.3 billion doses of vaccines by the end of the year to low- and middle-income countries – at non—profit to low-income countries and at low cost to middle-income countries. So it’s good to see that public announcement. We can keep track and we can make sure with scrutiny that 1.3 billion doses are delivered in these circumstances by the end of the year.  Indeed, the third pillar is the export of vaccines. We cannot just keep the whole production for ourselves, and Europe has proven that it is possible to vaccinate your own people and to allow for export. Since January, we have been exporting almost half of our production. To put that in numbers, out of 600 million doses of vaccine produced here in Europe, around 300 million doses have been exported to over 90 countries so far. If all the other vaccine producers had followed our example, the world would be a different place today.  In the course of this discussion, of course the question of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has been raised recently. When the US administration put forward its thoughts, we said we were open to discussion. Now, just four weeks later, we have put forward a new global trade initiative at the WTO, aiming to deliver more equitable access to vaccines and therapeutics.  This initiative has three elements. The first is we want clear rules to keep supply chains open and to eliminate export restrictions on vaccines and, of course, all the components that are necessary to produce these vaccines. So clear rules in the WTO to introduce discipline if there are exports obstacles.  Secondly, we want to help ramp up production not only in Europe, but also in Africa and elsewhere. For that, we need to ensure, again in the WTO, clear rules to ensure the necessary transfer of technologies and know—how in emergencies. Here I want to be very clear: I think intellectual property has to be protected, because it is the idea behind the breakthrough and retains the incentives for innovation in research and development. Voluntary licences are, of course, the most effective way to facilitate expanding production, and at the G20 Global Health Summit in Rome, leaders reaffirmed this assessment. However – and this is a big ‘however’ – in a global emergency like this pandemic, if voluntary licensing fails, compulsory licensing has to be, and is, the legitimate tool to scale up production.  This is why, together with the WTO, we want to clarify and simplify the use of compulsory licensing in times of national emergency. We discussed this proposal yesterday in the WTO. Vaccine production of course requires a lot of know—how. We all know that. These are very complicated biological processes. They require know—how, technology, skilled personnel and, of course, infrastructure. I do not think that you get there by simply waiving intellectual property rights. It is actually by collaboration and, if need be, compulsory licensing that you enhance technology transfer. The patent does not tell the whole story. A patent explains part of the production process and – don’t get me wrong – it should not stand in the way. So there are also provisions for that in our proposal in the WTO. But you need to have more when it comes to these kinds of complex products. This is why Europe started this initiative in the WTO to simplify compulsory licensing. This is also why Europe committed EUR 1 billion to creating, together with our African partners and our industrial partners, manufacturing hubs in different regions in Africa. At a certain point in time, we will certainly come back to this discussion.  La réunion du G7 sera une bonne occasion de réaffirmer nos engagements et d’aller encore plus loin. Au G7, nous discuterons également de l’impact économique de la crise de la COVID-19, en particulier pour certains des pays les plus pauvres de la planète, parce que notre reprise doit fonctionner pour tous. Selon les Nations unies, à l’heure actuelle, plus de 34 millions de personnes sont au bord de la famine.  Nous devons renforcer les systèmes alimentaires mondiaux. C’est pourquoi l’Union européenne, lors du G7, s’engagera à octroyer une nouvelle aide humanitaire de 250 millions d’euros pour lutter contre la faim. Par exemple, nous voulons donner presque 50 millions d’euros aux pays de la région du Sahel et de l’Afrique de l’Est, des régions durement touchées par les conséquences économiques de la pandémie et par le changement climatique, c’est-à-dire les sécheresses, les inondations, les conditions météorologiques extrêmes. Nous connaissons tous le phénomène.  Le changement climatique a lieu et la science ne laisse aucun doute: il n’y a pas de temps à perdre. Et c’est pourquoi, malgré la pandémie, l’Europe choisit d’accélérer la transition écologique en adoptant un plan de relance durable. Parce que même un réchauffement planétaire ramené à 1,5 °C aurait de graves incidences, en particulier dans les régions les moins développées du monde. This is why words must now be followed by tangible action across all sectors of our economies and our societies. You know that we are going to present the ‘Fit for 55’ package in mid—July, and I’m glad that, at the special meeting of the European Council at the end of May, Heads of State and Government, in the first discussion on the overall package, showed broad support, because Europe wants to lead the way in this transition towards an economy that gives more to the planet than it takes away.  We want to broker the same ambition at global level. Clear commitments followed by equally clear action, in particular in alignment with the G7 and the United States in the G7, would be very welcome, and it’s time to do that now. With the US, we will not only grow our common trade and investment relationship in support of the green and digital transition of our economies but, together, we will also engage with our international partners for a shared commitment and joint action to reduce emissions by 2030 and to have tangible goals to become climate—neutral economies by 2050.  In this way, we hope, and we are working, to achieve the most ambitious possible outcome at COP26 in Glasgow and at the Biodiversity COP15 in Kunming.  This is the ambition we want to bring to the table when we meet with our partners and friends from all over the world. I know that you, the European Parliament, share this ambition, because we all want to end this pandemic and we all want to leave a healthy planet to future generations. Long live Europe!