During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (18-21 January 2021), MEPs debate on the EU global strategy on COVID-19 vaccinations.Opening statements by Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portugese Council presidency and by Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

vaccine

healthcare safety (T)

vaccination

KYRIAKIDES, Stella (CY, EC)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

vaccination strategy (T)

ZACARIAS, Ana Paula (PT)

EU global strategy on COVID-19 vaccinations: Opening statements by Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency and by Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/4959271/I200945Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Original), Katarina BARLEY (S&amp;D, DE), chair, Good morning, colleagues, the  sitting is open, and I turn to the first item on the agenda, which is Council and Commission statements on an EU global strategy on covid-19 vaccinations.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Katarina BARLEY (S&amp;D, DE), chair, I'd like to inform members that for all debates of this part-session, there will be no catch-the-eye procedure and no blue cards will be accepted. Furthermore, remote interventions from Parliament's liaison offices in the member states are foreseen. And so I'm happy to welcome Mrs Ana Paula Zacarias and give her the floor. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, Madam President, honourable members, thank you very much for this invitation. For the next six months, I'll be representing the rotating Council presidency by the side of our minister for foreign affairs in this noble assembly. So it's a pleasure and an honour to be here. And I want to say that we attach high importance to the relations with the European Parliament and we look forward to keeping a good cooperation during the six months of our presidency.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, And I think that this debate on the global strategy of covid-19 vaccinations comes at a very relevant moment. In the Council, we've been working actively on this issue, notably at the informal video conference of Ministers of Health that took place on the 13th of January. Also yesterday, we had an informal meeting of ministers for European affairs where the issue was discussed and I shared that meeting.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, And on the 21st of January, the members of the European Council will also discuss this matter at another video conference following the presentation... Over communitation by the commission that is expected today. So the debate comes at a real critical moment. The epidemiological situation in Europe remains very worrying. The impact of more social contact during the holiday period, combined with the emergency of new, highly contagious variants of the virus means that things are probably going to get worse before they get better.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, Many member states decided to maintain or even reinforce drastically the restrictive measures they have in place as their health care systems increasingly come under strain. And this, as you all know, comes at a moment when we all feel pandemic fatigue, when we all know the terrible consequences and social consequences of new lockdowns, and when we know that we need to preserve our internal market and Schengen.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, In this difficult situation the start of the vaccination campaign across Europe gives a glimmer of hope to save lives, a lifeline to recovery. And we managed the first vaccine's development and authorised in less than one year. This represents an enormous success for the scientific community, for all the stakeholders that participated in this endeavour. This represents an enormous success also for the European Union that was at the forefront of a global mobilisation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, Through a common European approach, we have accelerated the development of many of the most promising vaccines. Through a common European approach, we have secured access to vaccines for each and every European. And through a common European approach, drawing on the shared scientific expertise at our disposal, we have been able to authorise vaccines that are safe and effective. The EU strategy on vaccination has been a demonstration of unity, of solidarity. And now we need to go on. We need to continue this concrete expression of European added value.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, We need more vaccines and we need to ensure the efficient rollout of vaccination in all of our member states because now people want to be vaccinated. And at the moment we know that the demand of vaccines outstrips supply. While continuing our efforts to limit the spread of the virus, we now need to focus on the coming weeks and months to ensure that as many citizens as possible have access to the vaccine and that the vaccination campaign progresses rapidly and effectively. Despite the difficulties, there are still reasons to become optimistic.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, First, the portfolio of authorised vaccines has been expanded, both in terms of number of vaccines and number of doses. Second, the production capacities of the authorised vaccines are being progressively scaled up in Europe. And last but not least, additional vaccines are in the pipeline to obtain an authorisation in the days and weeks to come. Yet getting the vaccine to the whole population remains a great challenge. This is where clear communication can play a decisive role. We must be able to explain to our citizens the main bottlenecks that we are facing.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, We equally have to be transparent on the number of doses that we receive and the number of those that are effectively administered in our countries. We need to have comparable data. We must also combat the lack of trust in vaccines and convince people of their merits and importance. We need to work together to convey a clear and effective messages on this aspect. Transparency and trust need to go hand in hand.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, And at the same time, we continue to monitor the vaccination campaign in close collaboration with all the EU bodies. We also need to discuss the format and role of the vaccination certificate. And finally, we need to discuss a common approach on the use and validation of antigen rapid tests and a mutual recognition of covid-19 test results. The analysis of these tests will also provide fundamental input on understanding the genetic sequencing of the new virus variant.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Council presidency, A last word on international cooperation. We know that we will not be safe while our neighbours are sick, so international cooperation is needed. And the EU has here also a huge responsibility towards the most vulnerable in our eastern and southern neighbourhoods. Saving lives is saving the future and we can do this only together. Member states, stakeholders, civil society, Council, Commission, Parliament. We need to be together. This is what our citizens expect. It's a huge responsibility and we need to deliver as best as we can together. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Madam President, honourable members, first of all, let me begin by wishing everyone a happy, healthy and safe New Year. Since the spring of last year, we have lost more than 400,000 lives in the EU. With new, more transmissible variants of the virus emerging and detected in member states, we are still far from overcoming this pandemic. But we have also turned the page and we begin 2021 with a powerful tool at hand to progressively put an end to this pandemic. There is light at the end of the horizon.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Every day across the EU, priority groups are being vaccinated with safe, effective vaccines from BioNtech-Pfizer and Moderna. More approved vaccines will come, I hope, in the coming weeks, with the European Medicines Agency recently receiving an application for the AstraZeneca vaccine and expects to receive more applications in the coming months. My gratitude goes out to the scientists who have delivered breakthroughs in record times and the countless health care workers that after the most difficult ten months any of us could have imagined, they are now also playing a vital role in the vaccination rollout.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, However, covid-19 has always been bigger than the EU. It is a global pandemic and it requires global solutions to ensure that no one is left behind. No country will be safe and no economy will truly recover until the virus is under control in all continents. The recently emerged variants of the virus are proof of this. The European Union is ready to play its geopolitical role here in full alignment with its founding values. The simple principle was that the centre of our response from day one of this pandemic and it continues to guide our efforts today, nearly one year later.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, It is also at the very heart of the communication we will adopt later today, highlighting the measures necessary to keep the pandemic under control until safe and effective vaccines can be deployed towards population immunity. I'm very thankful to the members of this House who have likewise constantly defended that we are all in this together, when the EU was unfairly criticised. Honourable members, we want to ensure that every single person who needs a vaccine gets it anywhere in the world. We believe deeply that fair access can be ensured through multilateralism.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, And that is why we were amongst the architects of COVAX at the very early stages of this pandemic. With exactly this goal in mind. COVAX, the global facility to ensure fair and universal access to covid-19 vaccines, aims to purchase two billion doses by the end of 2021, including over one point three billion for low and middle income countries. The EU and its member states, as Team Europe have so far provided over 850 million euro to COVAX, which makes the EU its biggest donor.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, We are aware that this is only the start and we need to mobilise additional support as we move forward, also as part of the vaccine strategy. We have invested in the manufacturing capacity so that vaccines are more rapidly available to everyone, everywhere. And we have called for the free flow of vaccines and materials without export restrictions, including through the trade and health initiative in the World Trade Organisation. We are also working with member states to propose a European mechanism to share vaccines beyond our borders, especially before COVAX is fully operational.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Honourable members, the EU's greatest strength is its unified voice. By working together, we have secured a diverse portfolio of vaccines and we can build on advanced technologies, collective bargaining and good contract conditions in terms of liability and delivery. But we also have a responsibility, a responsibility to use our position of strength to support others. Through the vaccine sharing mechanism, we will help priority groups in the Western Balkans and neighbourhood countries, as well as health professionals in low income countries, particularly in Africa, and most vulnerable populations in humanitarian settings to get early access to vaccines.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, We will provide grants for 17 million euro to the Western Balkans so that they can buy vaccines from our member states. We are working with WHO to provide immediate support of more than 50 million for vaccination preparedness in the Western Balkans and neighbourhood countries. Each of these efforts contributes to the same goal rapid, equal and universal access to safe and effective vaccines. And they are based on the same one principle, that of global solidarity, because this is what holds the key to a healthier, more equal and the more sustainable world. And this is what benefits each and every one of us.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Finally, let me assure you that I have been hearing your calls of transparency loud and clear, and I fully appreciate and recognise that the democratically elected parliament in the EU must be in the position to scrutinise our work under the appropriate conditions. As you know, we are bound by confidentiality clauses in the contracts, but I do welcome that the first of our vaccine suppliers has agreed to make that text available. I'm hopeful that this is not the end of the road and we will continue to work with all the vaccine suppliers to obtain their agreement and extend this access as quickly as possible. I look forward to hearing your views and thank you once again.