Brussels, 25 August 2021
In response to the ongoing COVID-19, Member of the European Parliament Željana Zovko initiated a joint letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other members of the college of Commissioners to call for a coordinated global response in order to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic and finally eradicate the virus and its variants. The signatories of the letter advocated equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and to accelerate the production and distribution of vaccines worldwide, including by considering the waiver of intellectual protection rules on COVID-19 vaccines.
President von der Leyen replied in an official letter that the European Commission remains committed to the objective of universal equitable access to vaccines and that the EU has played a leading role in the global response to the pandemic by exporting around half of its produced vaccines and by contributing to the COVAX initiative. The Commission is also ready to engage constructively in the discussion on how the global trading system can contribute towards the universal access in the shortest time possible and has presented its own proposals to its partners in the WTO. Furthermore, the EU and its Member States are actively working on the development of vaccine production capabilities in the African continent.
You can read the letter of President von der Leyen below:
