During the plenary session of the European Parliament in Brussels (08-11 February 2021), MEPs debate the state of play of the EU's COVID-19 Vaccination Strategy. Opening statements by Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs and Presidence in office of the Council of the EU, and by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission. This transcription speech is the result of an automatic process. Check against delivery.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

SASSOLI, David Maria (S&D, IT, S&D, IT)

healthcare safety (T)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

vaccination strategy (T)

ZACARIAS, Ana Paula (PT)

The state of play of the EU's COVID-19 vaccination strategy: opening statements by Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, and Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, On the agenda, next, we have the Council and the Commission on the fight against covid-19. I thank the president of the Commission for her presence in the plenary with us today. And I thank Minister Zacarias to whom I give the floor on behalf of the European Council.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Dear president, dear president of the European Commission, commissioner, honourable members since the start of the Portuguese presidency, this is the second time that Council, Commission and Parliament come together to discuss our joint efforts to progress on the vaccination strategy to fight covid-19. Unfortunately, since our last debate, the situation has not improved.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Europe is still facing challenging times due to the pandemic. The spread of the virus remains worrisome in most member states, including my own. New variants of concern have emerged, making it necessary to follow strict measures to contain the disease. And in the meantime, vaccination of our population has not progressed as quickly as we would have wished. So it's time to redouble our work, not lowering our ambition or wishing away real practical difficulties.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, But at the same time, we must not forget what we have achieved so far. The EU's strategy on vaccination has been an example of unity and solidarity in action. It was motivated by and has achieved real tangible benefits. It has allowed an equitable and fair distribution of vaccines amongst member states so that all EU citizens can have now access to the vaccines in an equal fashion.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, We have had three covid-19 vaccines approved in less than a year and we are expected a few more to come in the near future. And we began vaccination campaigns across all member states. All these are remarkable milestones following a path of solidarity. And right now my country knows better than most that European solidarity is more than just words. It's action. And Portugal is very grateful for the numerous offers of assistance and concrete support from several member states.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Honourable members, we knew that during the first stages of our vaccination campaigns, the availability of the vaccines would be limited. This is why we had to prioritise certain groups like the elderly people and the health care workers in our national vaccination strategies. But the recent news on delays in vaccine deliveries by some producers are a source of concern to which we must react in real time. Vaccine production is a complex process, especially at this unprecedented scale.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, The truth is that companies may have ever overestimated their production capacities. We need to make sure that companies respect the contracts signed and deliver on their commitments. Countries need to know how many vaccines are available and by when to plan their vaccination campaigns. And we need this data to work. This is crucial. Recently, the Commission has also put in place an export authorisation mechanism for covid-19 vaccines. And this will allow us to understand where the vaccines produced in the EU are being distributed.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, In both cases, transparency is paramount to increase citizens' trust in this process. We as Council presidency are willing to contribute to this endeavour. Prime Minister Antonio Costa, together with the president of the Commission, wrote a letter to all heads of state and government inviting member states to remain united and combine efforts with industry to ramp up the supply of vaccines and production capacity in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, They also presented some concrete ideas on how to improve our fight against the different variants of the virus. Also, the European Council will meet on February 25th to continue articulating our joint response to covid-19. And the General Affairs Council will prepare this discussion and we will continue to work intensively at technical and political level. This effort should also help us to roll up the covid-19 vaccines at global level.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Solidarity cannot stop at European borders. Fair access to vaccines for low and middle income countries is consistent with our values and it is also in our own interest. We will not be safe until everybody is safe. We also need to put more efforts in communication. Citizens have the right to factual information and we need to convey such information as clearly and transparent as possible.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, At the same time, we need to keep monitoring carefully the vaccination campaigns in close collaboration with the EU bodies in order to be able to address other possible challenges at an early stage and take appropriate action. We all know this will be a long process, longer and more complex than we have ever expected, be it at the level of public health or on the social and economic repercussions of the pandemic, as the president of the Commission put it: it's a marathon.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ana Paula ZACARIAS, Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Vaccination is a powerful tool in our response to this crisis, but it will take time before a majority of the EU population is vaccinated. We still have to keep working together for the common good, enduring social distancing, wearing face masks and taking all other protective measures that we can until we finally beat this virus. Walking on a thin path between what has worked since the Middle Ages and the impressive technological achievements of the present. We need to stay together. We need to stay united. This is the only way out. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (Original), David SASSOLI, EP President, Thank you, Minister Zacarias. And now over to President von der Leyen.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Dear president, minister, ladies and gentlemen, members of the European Parliament. In Poland since the beginning of February, 94 percent of the medical staff and 80 percent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated in the pensions, the old folks homes. In fact, 93 percent in Denmark. In Italy to date, more than four percent of the entire population have received their inoculation.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, These three examples are indicative of the fact that the vaccination campaign in Europe has really gained speed, gaining momentum. And since December, 26 million doses of the jabber have been delivered and more than 17 million people have been vaccinated. And we're going to work as hard as we possibly can in order to meet our objective so that by the end of the summer, at least 70 percent of the population will have been vaccinated.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And yet it is also a fact that today in the fight against the virus, we are still not where we want to be. We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production and perhaps we were too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time. We need to ask ourselves why that is the case and what lessons we can draw from this experience.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, But allow me nonetheless, first of all, start with three points of the accuracy of which I am deeply convinced of. It was the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do that we as Europeans to collectively have ordered in solidarity the vaccine. I cannot even imagine what would have happened if just a handful of big players, big member states, had rushed to it and everybody else would have been left empty handed. What would that have meant for our internal market and for the unity of Europe?

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, In economic terms, it would have been nonsense and it would have been, I think, the end of our community. The same solidarity must also be shown with our partners in our neighbourhood and across the world. This is also a matter of stopping the spread of the virus to reduce the likelihood of mutations. The access to vaccines for low and middle income countries is therefore as much about our own interest as it is about solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And this is why we set up COVAX, the facility in which high income countries can finance the access to vaccines for low and middle income countries. As Team Europe, that is the member states of the European institutions, we have provided 850 million euro, making us one of the biggest contributor to COVAX. And COVAX will start delivering vaccines as of this month, and I am sure that this house will agree that we need more. Because our responsibility extends far beyond Europe's borders.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, The third point I would like to raise involves our approach and our procedures. We've made a choice to not make any shortcuts when it comes to safety or efficacy, and we fully defend that choice. There is no compromise possible when it's a matter of injecting a biologically active substance into an individual who is in good health. This is why we rely on the EMA and the European Medicines Agency's procedure.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And yes, that means that approval takes three to four additional weeks and that additional time is an essential investment to establish confidence and to ensure security. And yes, there are lessons to be learnt from this, and we have already learnt a great deal. First of all, we need to make improvements in the share of data when it comes to the clinics. And that's why, as of now, we have a new European network of these clinics.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, When it comes to our health commissioner Stella Kyriakides will be working on a regulatory framework to enable the EMA to produce and examine these vaccines as swiftly as possible. Another lesson to be learnt when it comes to the mass production of these vaccines. Quite rightly, all of us were very much focussed on the development of the vaccine, but broadly speaking, we underestimated the difficulty related to mass production.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Normally, it takes five to 10 years time to produce a new vaccine. We did it in 10 months. This is a huge scientific success and we should be rightly proud. But in a way, science has outstripped the industry. The production of new vaccine is a very complex procedure. It is quite simply not possible to establish a production site overnight. Furthermore, these vaccines contain up to 400 ingredients and production involves as many as 100 enterprises.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Which is why we created a task force to increase industrial production of the vaccine under the authority of Thierry Breton, our commissioner in charge of the internal market. The objective being to track down where there are problems and find ways to solve them. Industry must adapt to the pace of science.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Indeed, industry has to match the groundbreaking pace of science. We fully understand that difficulties will arise in the mass production of vaccines. But Europe has invested billions of euros in capacities in advance, and we urge the member states to plan their vaccine rollout, so now we all need predictability. And this is why we introduced the export transparency and authorisation mechanism.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, To be very clear. We do not intend to restrict companies that are honouring their contracts with the European Union and there is an automatic exemption. For exports to the EEA countries, for the Western Balkans and the rest of our neighbourhood, for humanitarian needs and for the 92 low and middle income countries covered by COVAX. So Europe is always ready to help, but we insist on our fair share.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And as far as the mechanism goes, allow me a word on the island of Ireland. The bottom line is that mistakes were made and the process leading up to the decision, and I deeply regret that. But in the end, we got it right. And I can reassure you that my Commission will do its utmost to protect the peace of Northern Ireland, just as it has done throughout the entire Brexit process.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Honourable members, the battle against the virus is a marathon and not a sprint. It needs foresight, endurance and stamina. Almost every day we hear news of different variants and how contagious they are. We do not yet have the full picture when it comes to the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines on new strains, but we do know these variants will continue to emerge and we do know that we need to anticipate and prepare immediately.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And this is this is why we start our new hair up project now with launching our preparedness agenda against new variants next week, we need to adapt our regulations to this new challenge. We need rapid sequencing and clinical characterisation of new mutations. And we need a systematic sample and data sharing across networks and labs because to defeat the virus, we need to know as much detail about it as possible.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, In parallel, we will tackle a second challenge. As I said, we are dealing with completely new mRNA vaccines never manufactured at scale before. One of the current bottlenecks is, for example, linked to just two synthetic molecules. If we had just 250 grams more of these molecules, companies say they could produce one million more doses of vaccine.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, And this is why we need more coordination on the supply of key ingredients, we need to improve manufacturing search capacity and we need to boost cooperation between the public and the private sector. And this will be the core task. Because we must ensure that despite future mutants, we will be safe next winter and beyond.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, Honourable members, we all know that the information we have on the virus and the vaccines can change by the hour, and this is why we will set up a contact group between the European Parliament and the Commission. And I will do my utmost to ensure that you are able to scrutinise all the contracts we have signed, because I know that trust needs transparency.

SOUNDBITE (Original), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the European Commission, So, ladies and gentlemen, members of the European Parliament, all of us are giving our best in the fight against this virus in our families, in the cities and local communities, in the member states and at the European level. And that's something that we should not mutually give up on. We can only hope to come to terms with this if we stick together. Our common enemy is the virus. Long live Europe. Thank you.