The EU calls for an action plan to step up the production of covid vaccines

On Friday, the European Union presented a proposal to commit World Trade Organization (WTO) members to a multilateral trade action plan to expand vaccine production and treatment for COVID-19 and to ensure universal and equitable access to vaccines and medicines. The European Commission has clarified that the proposal for the WTO, which is divided into two communications, emphasizes the central role of the WTO in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and calls on other WTO members to agree on a set of commitments, including on IPR. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in this context that the EU had been actively showing solidarity with the world since the beginning of the pandemic and had authorized the export of about half of the total number of vaccines produced in Europe. She said the EU was proposing concrete short- and medium-term solutions to ensure universal access to affordable vaccines, which she would personally repeat next week during discussions with G7 leaders. The head of the European Commission added that in addition to the current crisis, it is important to ensure global preparedness for future pandemics. This means diversifying vaccine production so that it is not centralized in just a few countries, and strengthening the resilience of health infrastructure in the least developed countries. Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for EU trade policy, emphasized that the main problem with vaccines is the lack of production capacity to produce the required quantities quickly. That is also why the EU's goal is to use any available and adequate production capacity anywhere in the world to produce vaccines. The Union called on national governments to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines and medicines, as well as their ingredients, could cross borders freely. It encourages manufacturers to expand their production and supply affordable vaccines to the countries most in need, and to facilitate the use of compulsory licenses under the existing WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).