Strengthening the global health architecture and reinforcing the role of the WHO within it is a priority, stressed the European Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, on Monday 27 February, during an exchange in the European Parliament’s special ‘COVI’ committee, chaired by Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgian).
As the work of this special committee draws to a close and negotiations resume in Geneva on the future binding international agreement or treaty on pandemic preparedness and response (27 February-3 March), MEPs again addressed the external aspects of the pandemic. However, the commissioner did not provide any information on the ongoing negotiations. “The global architecture is fragmented, it needs to be better coordinated at the global level. The Commission, the EU are committed to contributing to a global normative, legal and regulatory framework”, she replied when asked to comment on the version zero of the text published in February (see EUROPE 13081/22).
Stating that the EU had been a “world leader” in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic “for our citizens and partner countries” - notably through COVAX - she said that “vaccine inequality and the need to diversify production and distribution capacities” were two lessons from the pandemic.
The EU, its Member States and financial institutions have mobilised €1.1 billion to support the production of mRNA vaccines in Africa “to support the strategic autonomy” of countries that import more than 99% of their vaccines and 95% of their medicines. “We are currently focusing on Africa. African projects are taking off with the support of the EU and the involvement of European companies”, she said.
Several MEPs visited South Africa and Ethiopia last week. They reported South African parliamentarians’ dissatisfaction with COVAX because the vaccines were delivered to low-income countries 3 weeks before the expiry date. Michèle Rivasi (Greens/EFA, French) asked whether the Commission could help these countries overcome the refusal of laboratories to reimburse advances in the context of the cancelled advance purchases.
According to Ms Urpilainen, the money will go back to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
Beyond South Africa, the leading African country of production, she said that “in Senegal, yellow fever vaccine production is underway, and in Ghana and Rwanda, new production sites are expected to begin producing vaccines in 2024 and 2025.
Referring to the reproductive health and sexual education promoted by the UN in its Sustainable Development Goals, Margarita de la Pisa Carrión (ECR, Spanish) asked whether the SDGs were not “an ideological position, badly perceived by many African countries”. The commissioner replied that “the SDGs have been adopted by all world leaders”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)