Porto (Portugal) (AFP)
The European Union on Saturday returned the ball to the United States on the lifting of patents on anti-Covid vaccines, calling on Washington to make "concrete proposals" and end its ban on the export of serums and their components.
The surprise announcement of the support of Joe Biden's administration for the lifting of patents on vaccines against Covid-19 in order to accelerate their production and distribution to poor countries - echoed by that of the Pope on Saturday- has shaken up the agenda of Europeans, gathered at the summit for two days in Porto.
The Twenty-Seven were overwhelmingly skeptical about this proposal, seeing it as a media stunt from the new American administration.
In response, they loudly demanded the most generous policy on vaccine exports and called on Washington to imitate them.
"We do not think that, in the short term, this can be a magic solution," he warned, however.
- "Vaccines now" -
"This is not something that will bring vaccines in the months to come, nor perhaps even in the year to come. However we need vaccines now", added the President of the Commission Ursula von der Leyen .
Europeans believe that producing and exporting vaccines from existing factories is the best way to respond quickly to global demand.
They stress that the EU is the "only democratic region" to export so many vaccines, while the British and Americans have chosen to reserve their production for their own population.
Out of 400 million doses already produced in the European Union, about 50%, or 200 million, have gone to 90 countries, said the head of the European executive, who also announced on Saturday the conclusion of a new contract. with Pfizer-BioNTech to guarantee the EU up to 1.8 billion doses, which is much more than its own needs.
Ms von der Leyen explained that surplus vaccines could be donated or resold to third countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron called on "the United States to end export bans not only of vaccines but of components of these vaccines which prevent production".
The United States put in place under President Donald Trump, an executive order called the "Defense Production Act", which requires Americans to have priority over vaccines manufactured in their country, de facto restricting exports of doses manufactured in the States. -United, but also components.
- Europeans divided -
"The key to producing vaccines faster for poor countries and intermediate countries is to produce more: lift export bans," Emmanuel Macron insisted at a press conference in Porto.
Same appeal from Germany, a country which from the American announcement clearly expressed its hostility.
"I wish that now that a large part of the American population has been vaccinated, we can have a free exchange of components and also an opening of the vaccine market," reacted Chancellor Angela Merkel, who participated in the summit by videoconference. .
Europeans are divided between those who, like Germany, oppose the proposal, and those who want to be open on the issue, underlines a European source.
Spain believes, for example, that "intellectual property cannot be an obstacle to putting an end to Covid-19 and ensuring equitable and universal access to vaccines".
She called for finding "an urgent consensus" for the lifting of patents within the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The Pope added his voice to the debate on Saturday, supporting the idea of a "temporary suspension" of these intellectual property rights and criticizing "narrow nationalism" which prevents universal access to these products.
India and South Africa are also campaigning for such a measure at the WTO, to which pharmaceutical companies are fiercely opposed.
© 2021 AFP