First modification: Last modification:
–
Brussels (AFP)
The European Union (EU) has already exported more than 1 billion doses of covid-19 vaccines to some 150 countries in the last 10 months, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Monday.
“Clearly, the EU is the largest exporter of anticovid vaccines,” Von der Leyen said in a statement adding that the bloc has delivered “around 87 million doses to low- and middle-income countries through the COVAX mechanism.” .
Von der Leyen announced that in the coming months the EU must donate “at least 500 million doses to the most vulnerable countries.”
The EU, said the German official, has always shared vaccines “fairly” with the rest of the world.
“We have exported as much as we have distributed with EU citizens. At least one out of every two vaccines produced in Europe has been exported,” he said.
This has allowed “the vaccination of our citizens. And more than 75% of adults in the European Union are now fully vaccinated.”
In September, the EU announced that the mechanism to control the exports of anticovid vaccines will be kept in operation until the end of December, to guarantee the supply of the vaccination campaigns started in the block.
That control mechanism was adopted by the EU in January this year, amid bitter controversy with the AstraZeneca laboratory, which at the time had greatly delayed its delivery schedule.
The device determines that an export of anticovid vaccines must obtain authorization from the country where the export begins, in a decision that must be confirmed by the European Commission.
Countries like the United States, India and South Africa, in addition to NGOs around the world, defend the temporary suspension of patents on vaccines, but the EU opposes it and instead proposes to strengthen the COVAX mechanism.
© 2021 AFP
–
