Debate: EU global strategy on COVID- vaccinations
Date: TUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 2021
Speaker: Stella Kyriakides
Language: EN

Every day across the EU priority groups are being vaccinated with safe, effective vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna. More approved vaccines will come, I hope, in the coming weeks, with the European Medicines Agency recently receiving an application for the AstraZeneca vaccine and expects to receive more applications in the coming months.  My gratitude goes out to the scientists who have delivered breakthroughs in record times and the countless healthcare workers that passed through the most difficult 10 months any of us could have imagined. They are now also playing a vital role in the vaccination rollout.  However, COVID-19 has always been bigger than the EU. It is a global pandemic and it requires global solutions to ensure that no one is left behind. No country will be safe and no economy will truly recover until the virus is under control in all continents. The recently emerged variants of the virus are proof of this. The European Union is ready to play its geopolitical role here in full alignment with its founding values. The simple principle was at the centre of our response from day one of this pandemic and it continues to guide our efforts today, nearly one year later. It is also at the very heart of the communication we will adopt later today, highlighting the measures necessary to keep the pandemic under control until safe and effective vaccines can be deployed towards population immunity. I’m very thankful to the Members of this House who have likewise constantly defended that we are all in this together when the EU has been unfairly criticised. Honourable Members, we want to ensure that every single person who needs a vaccine gets it anywhere in the world. We believe deeply that fair access can be insured through multilateralism and that is why we were among the architects of COVAX at the very early stages of this pandemic, with exactly this goal in mind. COVAX, the global facility to ensure fair and universal access to COVID-19 vaccines aims to purchase two billion doses by the end of 2021, including over 1.3 billion for low and middle-income countries.  The EU and its Member States, as Team Europe, have so far provided over EUR 850 million to COVAX, which makes the EU its biggest donor. We are aware that this is only the start and we need to mobilise additional support as we move forward. Also as part of the EU vaccine strategy we have invested in the manufacturing capacity so that vaccines are more rapidly available to everyone, everywhere. And we have called for the free flow of vaccines and materials without export restrictions, including through the trade and health initiative in the World Trade Organisation. We are also working with Member States to propose a European mechanism to share vaccines beyond our borders, especially before COVAX is fully operational.  Honourable Members, the EU’s greatest strength is its unified voice. By working together we have secured a diverse portfolio of vaccines and we can build on advanced technologies, collective bargaining and good contract conditions in terms of liability and delivery. But we also have a responsibility, a responsibility to use our position of strength to support others. Through the vaccine sharing mechanism, we will help priority groups in the Western Balkans and neighbourhood countries as well as health professionals in low-income countries, particularly in Africa, and most vulnerable populations in humanitarian settings, to get early access to vaccines.  We will provide grants for EUR 70 million to the Western Balkans so that they can buy vaccines from our Member States. We are working with the WHO to provide immediate support of more than 50 million for vaccination preparedness in the Western Balkans and neighbourhood countries. Each of these efforts contributes to the same goal: rapid, equal and universal access to safe and effective vaccines and they are based on the same one principle, that of global solidarity, because this is what holds the key to a healthier, more equal and a more sustainable world and this is what benefits each and every one of us.  Finally, let me assure you that I have been hearing your calls for transparency loud and clear and I fully appreciate and recognise that the democratically elected Parliament in the EU must be in the position to scrutinise our work under the appropriate conditions. As you know, we are bound by confidentiality clauses in the contracts, but I do welcome that the first of our vaccine suppliers has agreed to make our text available. I’m hopeful that this is not the end of the road and we will continue to work with all the vaccine suppliers to obtain their agreement and extend this access as quickly as possible. I now look forward to hearing your views and thank you once again.