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

Today’s debate on the EU’s role in combating the COVID—19 pandemic gives all of us an opportunity to highlight our global engagement and show solidarity, but also to underline the areas where we need to do more. We need to do more, not only morally and politically, but also for the sake of our own public health. We, the EU and Member States, acting as Team Europe, are at the very centre of the global effort against COVID—19, and we have been at the very centre from the very beginning. We can be proud of our EUR 46 billion contribution to international efforts to fight this pandemic.  The pandemic has now shifted to a new phase. We have vaccinated almost 76.3% of adults and almost 65.1% of our total population. This, one could say, is a European success story, but it is not enough if we do not vaccinate the world. Accelerating global vaccination rates and helping to reach the 70% we are targeting by the middle of next year needs to be our top priority. Today, Team Europe leads vaccine solidarity efforts with our collective donation of more than EUR 3 billion to COVAX, the global vaccine sharing mechanism. Honourable Members of this House, you have been at the forefront of our efforts to support COVAX. Through COVAX, more than 525 million doses have reached 144 countries in every single corner of the world, but there is still such a long way to go before COVAX meets its target of delivering 1.4 billion doses to low and middle—income countries by the end of 2021.  As has been said, COVAX has experienced unforeseen setbacks, such as the devastating outbreak of the Delta variant in India, which temporarily halted vaccine production. We exported more than 1.2 billion doses to third countries and stepped up our own vaccine-sharing programme. More than half of our vaccine production has been exported, and since the beginning, the EU has been the world’s leading exporter of COVID vaccines. It has never been about Europe first. It has always been Europe for the world. In addition to the over 250 million doses to be shared by Member States by the end of 2021, President von der Leyen announced a new commitment of another 200 million doses to low and middle-income countries by mid-2022. While the majority of these donations will be facilitated by COVAX, we have begun leveraging the EU’s own vaccine-sharing mechanism to accelerate delivery through bilateral donations and reselling to beneficiaries. Many of these are already facilitated by the Civil Protection Mechanism.  I want to take this opportunity to commend our Member States for accelerating vaccine sharing over recent weeks and months. So far, dose sharing has accounted for over 40% of the vaccines delivered through COVAX, and Team Europe’s contribution has been, and continues to be, vital to ensuring equitable access to vaccines. However, we must not stop now. Cooperation with our African partners in particular, where vaccination rates in many countries still rate below 10%, needs to intensify, and the EU will work with COVAX to further improve EU vaccine sharing and increase visibility. We are already seeing promising results, with the announcement this week of 100 million Johnson & Johnson doses donated by Team Europe to be delivered in the next few weeks. We must continue to promote voluntary licensing agreements for manufacturers to supply vaccines at affordable prices to the most vulnerable members. With the African Union—EU Summit approaching in February, I trust that Team Europe will come together once more to coordinate a large donation package for Africa.  Many of you have pointed out that, in the mid to long term, we need more vaccine donation programmes. COVID-19, among others, has highlighted an underlying structural problem – the wide discrepancy in medical manufacturing capabilities around the world. Africa, for example, still imports 99% of its vaccines. In order to fight the current pandemic and prevent future ones, countries must be able to produce their own vaccines. They need stronger health systems. Some geographical regions, such as Latin America, have been hit hard by the pandemic and are working in this direction.  In May this year, the EU launched an initiative to boost local manufacturing capacities in Africa, for Africa, financed by at least EUR 1 billion from the EU budget. Member States are joining this initiative. It will support the efforts of the African Union, and we have begun to make real progress. We have mobilised our first packages for Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa. More will follow, and we will be here to update you in the coming months. As part of our broader engagement, we are working to establish regional technology transfer hubs, improve regulatory capacity and strengthen the enabling environment to manufacture vaccines. We’re working with our trading partners to deliver on a trade policy to the COVID—19 pandemic in advance of the 12th Ministerial Conference in the WTO. We’re advocating for a holistic approach, which would include an understanding on intellectual property in addition to commitments in improving transparency, restraints from export restrictions, as well as trade facilitating measures, amongst others. What we urgently need now is a commitment from all WTO members to engage in a solution—oriented manner to find an outcome that really makes a difference on the ground, while also presenting incentives for innovation and investment. The EU will continue its efforts in the run—up to the Twelfth WTO Ministerial Conference to achieve such an outcome. Our goals are ambitious, but the pandemic requires nothing less and demands nothing less. To achieve our shared goals, it will be important for us to continue to combine our resources and our expertise. We do know we have a long way to go, but we are not going to waver in our efforts. I look forward to the debate.