PORTO, Portugal (Reuters) – The European Union is skeptical about the utility of breaking the vaccine patent against Kovid-19 to deal with the epidemic, but this Saturday, European Council President Michael Mishra to discuss a concrete resolution Is ready.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the second day of the EU summit in Porto, Michel said that the way to fight the epidemic at the moment is to make more vaccines and remove export restrictions on them in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, They produce vaccines, but they do not sell them to other countries.
“In Europe, we have decided to make exports possible and we encourage all partners to facilitate the export of supplements,” Mitchell said after a discussion with block leaders from 27 countries on Friday night.
India and South Africa defended vaccine patent infringement last year to boost production and ensure that the world was served. The debate on the issue intensified on Wednesday, when US President Joe Biden supported the idea, until it passed through the World Trade Organization.
An agreement at the WTO and the time it takes to build more capacity to produce vaccines would mean that this patent infringement would not be an instant solution, say the skeptics.
“Regarding intellectual property – we do not think that, in the short term, it is the silver bullet, but we are ready to discuss the matter as soon as a concrete proposal is on the table,” Mitchell said.
(By Jan Stroopjewski in Brussels and Sibyl de la Hameed in Paris)
