The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, François-Philippe Champagne, highlighted on Tuesday 14 April the joint work undertaken by the EU and Canada in the context of COVID-19 in consular, public health, international support and economic matters.
“We will continue to act, through mutually supportive measures, to contain the crisis, exit from it, and to move forward”, they promised in a joint statement.
Europeans and Canadians “are working together to ensure that essential supplies that serve to protect (their) health workers and citizens continue to move freely across borders”.
“We are urging the international community to keep supply chains open and joined up in order to facilitate the flow of essential goods, especially medical equipment, in the fight against the pandemic” they requested, adding that they are reviewing their respective emergency measures.
“The United Nations and our autonomous sanctions regimes provide for humanitarian exceptions; the application of these exceptions should allow the humanitarian aid to reach the most vulnerable populations”, they also said.
Finally, “the EU and Canada are committed to increasing research and innovation funding for vaccines, therapies and diagnostics, to making full use of digital technologies, and to strengthening international cooperation in science”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)