BRUSSELS: The European Union is willing to discuss a proposal, now backed by the United States, to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
The head of the EU executive said the bloc’s vaccination effort was accelerating, with 30 Europeans being inoculated per second, while exporting more than 200 million vaccine doses to the rest of the world — contrasting with limited sharing of vaccines by the United States and Britain.
“The EU is also ready to discuss any proposals that address the crisis in an effective and pragmatic manner,” Von der Leyen said in a speech to the European University Institute in Florence.
“That’s why we are ready to discuss how the US proposal for a waiver on intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines could help achieve that objective.”
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said Italy supported suspending patents, commenting on his Facebook page that Europe should not miss the opportunity and be courageous. French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “very much in favour” of opening up intellectual property. However, a French government official said lack of production capacity and upstream components was the problem, not patents.
“I would remind you that it is the United States which has not exported a single dose to other countries and which is now talking about lifting the patents,” the official said.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said he shared the US president’s goal of providing the whole world with vaccines.
South Africa and India made the initial vaccine waiver proposal at the World Trade Organization in October.
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