24/08/2020 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission announced on Friday 21 August that it has registered a new European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) aimed at making future vaccines and treatments against Covid-19 a “public good”. The ECI, entitled ‘Right to Vaccines and Treatments’, calls for patents not to hinder the accessibility or availability of future treatments or vaccines. It also calls for legal obligations for pharmaceutical companies receiving EU funds, on knowledge sharing and financial transparency. The organisers have six months to start the process of collecting signatures of support. According to EU law, they have to collect one million signatures from at least seven Member States in order for their proposals to be analysed in substance by the European Commission. Since the launch of the European Citizens’ Initiative, the Commission has registered a total of 75 Citizens’ Initiatives and rejected 26. (SPj)