Members of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) have an exchange of views with Stella KYRIAKIDES, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, in the European Parliament in Brussels on the EU Health Union package and on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including also illustrative shots on the vaccination and the digital green certificate.

Updates on the EU response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Exchange of views with Stella KYRIAKIDES, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety - ENVI Committee

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Title: Updates on the EU response to the Covid-19 pandemic

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, As of today, we have now administered 117 million vaccine doses in the EU and we're getting close to administering 3 million vaccinations every day. Over 30 million of our citizens are now fully vaccinated. Production capacities across the EU is gathering pace, making it possible to speed up deliveries and have an additional 50 million doses from Pfizer over the next 10 weeks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Negotiations are now ongoing for the purchase of 1.8 billion doses for 2022 and 2023.

SOUNDBITE (English), Peter LIESE (EPP, DE), I think it's important to have a vaccine for next year to vaccinate children and also to address any possible variants of the coronavirus. I think the Commission is right to put the focus on MARN technology because we see there are less side effects, they are more effective and they can be more easily addressed to adapt adapted to the virus.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sara CERDAS (S&amp;D, PT), I would also like to point out the lack of coordinated response by EMA and the national agencies. And this created a big fuss. And one of the examples is the AstraZeneca vaccine. How can the new Legislative package ensure that a more coordinated response happens in the future?

SOUNDBITE (English), Nicolae &#350;TEF&#258;NU&#538;&#258; (Renew, RO), We have to fight one more important battle, and that is vaccine hesitancy because vaccines are available. But many of the people got scared, got fears whether they are rational or not. That is something for us to solve.

SOUNDBITE (English), Bas EICKHOUT (Greens/EFA, NL), When you talk about the next generation and lessons learnt, you talk about how to make sure that the production within Europe is taking place. However, we think that another lesson learnt should also be the global outdraw of the facts and the global production. And with that also in our contracts, we can oblige companies to provide much more access to that knowledge in its contract.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pietro FIOCCHI (ECR, PT), What is your position on the green certificate? And all is being a very controversial but nevertheless, for exemple American tourists who wants to come to Europe. The situation is extremely confused. Some member states are asking seven days of quarantine, some five, some requesting the type of tests.

SOUNDBITE (English), Silvia MODIG (The Left, FI), We don't have clear data on how long the vaccinations give security or safety. We don't know how long the one who has had Covid is immune to the the harder type of Covid. And we don't know about the variants, especially the ones emergen and as long as this pandemic or new variants will emerge and we don't have the knowledge of how our vaccines at this moment will work for them or what modifications will be needed.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, I would agree with you that we need to be coherent. We need to have a coordinated approach. The European Medicines Agency has put forward its opinion for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. And we have seen member states following sometimes their own even more strict positions, scientific positions on the AstraZeneca vaccine. For this reason, after the Health Ministers Council two weeks ago I asked for the European Medicines Agency to come forward with a new scientific opinion on AstraZeneca, I'm expecting this tomorrow, which will ask guidance on the issues to do with the second dose, with the gender and the age.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stella KYRIAKIDES, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, I would just say here that the digital green certificates is a proposal for free movement within the EU entry for those coming from third countries is a different question, which which of course, needs to be addressed. Our focus is to facilitate safe, free movement.

Updates on the EU response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Exchange of views with Stella KYRIAKIDES, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety - ENVI Committee

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ENVI - Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety