During the plenary session (7-10 June 2021) in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on the conclusions of the special meeting of the European Council on 24 and 25 May 2021: extracts from the debates on EU Vaccines strategy. Statements by Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (S&D, ES), Dacian CIOLOŞ (Renew, RO), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), and Beata SZYDŁO (ECR, PL).

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

GARCÍA PÉREZ, Iratxe (S&D, ES)

MICHEL, Charles (BE)

SZYDŁO, Beata (ECR, PL)

CIOLOŞ, Dacian (Renew, RO)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

vaccination strategy (T)

special meeting of the European Council 24-25 May 2021 (T)

EU Vaccines strategy: extracts from the debate

Title: EU Vaccines strategy: extracts from the debate

Outside of the European parliament, Strasbourg

SOUNDBITE (French), Charles MICHEL, President of the European Council, We won't be safe until the whole world is safe in this crisis. And that's why we are fully convinced that the European Union must not feel shame for its choices, that were made from the very beginning. Europe's action on the world stage led to mobilising resources for research to ensure that in under a year, vaccines could be produced.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, In the short term, the dominant topic is vaccine supply in low and middle income countries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, I'm convinced, we have to engage the private sector more and that topic. And the health summit, we worked with our industrial partners, and it was good to see that the industrial partners committed publicly that they are willing to deliver one point three billion doses of vaccines, till the end of the year to low and middle income countries, at non-profit to low income countries, and at low costs to middle income countries.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, We cannot just keep the whole production for ourselves. And Europe has proven that it is possible to vaccinate your own people and to allow for export. Since January, we have been exporting almost half of our production and if you transfer that in numbers, out of 600 million doses of vaccines, produced here in Europe. Until now, around about 300 million doses have been exported to over 90 countries. And honourable members, if all the other vaccine producers had followed our example, the world would be a different place today.

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), The daily life of our citizens, I think this week's decision on the certificate is important because people have the chance also to win freedom of movement back, especially in front of the summer season. And that I want to see now, a strong competition amongst our member states who is first in implementing now what is currently on the table in both be approved this week.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Iratxe GARC&#205;A P&#201;REZ (S&amp;D, ES), It's time for us to move forward with legal action against the pharmaceutical companies that did not make good on their contracts. Our collective efforts have not come to an end. We've got to keep working. We've got to work, keep working in the economic area to implement the recovery plans on the world stage. To ensure the vaccines reach every country, we've got to keep working on social rights and on strengthening our wellbeing in the EU.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian), Dacian CIOLO&#350; (Renew, RO), The joint covid-19 digital certificate is a necessary tool for safe travels within the EU. This is helping millions of Europeans, not only for tourist purposes, but especially those daily have to cross borders to go to work for professional reasons and for those who have been patiently waiting for more than a year, during this long pandemic, to travel to see their loved ones again.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA, DE), The slogan of "No one is safe until everyone is safe" finally needs to be filled with life and donations of financial means. And vaccines are extremely welcome, but they're also not enough. Production needs to be front up and one tool to bring this forward is a temporary trips, safer compulsory licencing for countries of the global south and knowledge sharing that will boost global vaccine production.

SOUNDBITE (Polish), Beata SZYD&#321;O (ECR, PL), The situation has stabilised. It's very important for us not to underestimate the possibility of a new wave starting and so it's key to focus on vaccines. To prevent that, we need to ensure that there are growing numbers of vaccines. We need to ensure that more and more people wish to be vaccinated. And may I draw your attention to the fact that we need to focus first and foremost on that vaccination campaign, working with those who have questions about the vaccine, who are not sure.