Pope Francis asks to “abandon our individualisms and promote the common good”. For this we need “a spirit of justice that mobilizes us to ensure universal access to the vaccine and the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights”. Thus the pontiff in a video message to the young participants in the “Vax Live”. We need “a spirit of communion that allows us to generate a different, more inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic model”. “The pandemic has put us all in crisis, but let’s not forget that we do not come out of a crisis the same, or we come out better or worse”. “It is clear that – added the Pope – we are experiencing a crisis. The pandemic has put us all in crisis, but do not forget that one does not get out of a crisis in the same way, or one gets better or worse. ‘have the inventiveness to look for better ways “.
On the issue of patents, the European Union says it is ready to discuss “concrete proposals” regarding the revocation of intellectual property on anti-Covid vaccines. This was stated by the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, on the sidelines of the Social Summit in Porto. “We are ready to commit to this as soon as a concrete proposal is presented,” Michel told reporters. Who then added on Twitter: “The renunciation of the intellectual property of Covid-19 vaccines is not the magic bullet in the short term. We all agree that we must increase the production of vaccines, all over the world“.
A position on which the French President Emmanuel Macron also agrees. “There is no factory that cannot produce vaccines” for least developed countries “because of patents” right now, “he said on his arrival at the second day of the informal EU summit.” The problem today is not patents. – argues the head of the Elysée – but the production. And the first thing is to open. The EU has exported about 50% of the doses produced. 100% of what was produced in the United States and the United Kingdom was consumed from the national market “. For this, according to Macron, “the Anglo-Saxons must lift the export restrictions”. And the second point, he explains, “is the reconversion of factories and the transfer of technologies”. Then there is “the donation of doses” and fourth, “we must start the debate now: if intellectual property blocks production, it must be revoked, but in a limited way, because the innovators must be remunerated”.
For the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, “it is useful to open a debate without taboos and in a very secular way on the subject of patents, but the important thing is that everything is aimed at having more vaccines, for low-income countries. this – told the microphones of RaiNews24 – the European Union is already first of the class: we have not closed exports and 40% of production is already going to the poorest countries. It must be clear that if we don’t all get out, no one will get out. “Third countries, Sassoli explains, need vaccines:” If the richer countries do not provide, who will provide? “.
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