Global vaccination roll‑out and production

Question for written answer  E-001974/2021
to the Commission
Rule 138
Samira Rafaela (Renew)

As the EU and other Western countries move towards vaccinating their populations, countries that have more limited access to vaccines risk missing out on the global effort to achieve mass immunity. The EU has contributed to the global fight by engaging with the COVAX facility to distribute vaccines to countries that lack them. This process, however, is not moving fast enough to tackle the health crisis worldwide. We are already seeing variants of COVID‑19 emerge in various parts of the world. This is putting the global vaccination effort at risk, a threat that will be even greater if these variants cannot be effectively tackled using existing vaccines.

• 1.What efforts is the Commission undertaking to not only ensure COVAX works effectively, but also to ensure that it has enough vaccines for all countries in order to address the pandemic on a global scale?
• 2.How is the Commission planning to contribute to expanding vaccine production globally?
• 3.Is the Commission of the opinion that the temporary waiver of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) can effectively contribute to expanding vaccine production? If not, what other methods, such as compulsory licencing, is the Commission exploring to ensure that enough vaccines are produced?