Brussels, 24 October 2022
Dear Prime Minister De Croo,
Dear Bill Gates,
Distinguished guests,
It is so good to see you again. Dear Bill, the last time we met was just a month ago in New York at the Global Goalkeepers event. I was very moved by your foundation’s recognition of Europe’s leadership on global health and the fight against the COVID-19. The award is a truly collective one. It belongs to all Europeans who showed such dedication during the pandemic – from the frontline workers in our hospitals and essential services, to the scientists who developed the life-saving vaccines.
Today, we are joined by many of you, from around the world, who are committed to global health and equity. So I would like to use this occasion to reflect on the experience of the pandemic, not from a medical point of view but as a policymaker. And I would like to give a sober assessment of what I think went well and where we need to do better in future.
First lesson: the importance of solidarity and cooperation. Let me start with the European experience. When the COVID-19 virus made landfall in Europe, things got really rough at the beginning. Some Member States chose to close their borders. There was painful competition for protective equipment, ventilators and other medical supplies. Vaccine nationalism became the norm around the world. I can tell you – we Europeans had our tough and painful public discussions. But at a certain point, the European Union decided to take a different path – the path of solidarity and openness. We convinced Member States not to close their borders but to share equipment and personnel. We decided to buy vaccines together and not compete with one another. We started the vaccination campaign on the exact same day in our 27 Member States – with low numbers, but a fair distribution. We decided not to close our borders for vaccine exports, but to introduce a transparency mechanism. Today, over 80% of the EU adult population is fully vaccinated. While at the same time we have exported two-thirds of the vaccines produced in Europe to the rest of the world. Solidarity and openness were the pre-condition for success.
My second lesson: science does not exist in a vacuum. I believe it was no coincidence that the safest and most effective vaccines were developed and rolled-out rapidly in open societies. Science depends on cooperation, on education, on intellectual property, on data sharing, on individual mobility, freedom to move, on the regulatory environment and on translating results into products, services and policy. All these factors empower scientists to do their best work, and enable society to reap the benefit. My colleagues and I benefited enormously from the collective wisdom of scientific advice from Professor Peter Piot, from my group of COVID-19 science advisors, from the platform of 27 Member State government advisors. It is transparency and accountability, our freedom of speech and the freedom of science that enable good policymaking and innovation. These are the values that democratic societies depend on and nurture. So it was democracies that developed the life-saving effective vaccines and that were best able to support their citizens when they needed our help the most.
My third lesson is about the miracle of vaccines themselves. As a medical doctor by training, the importance of research and development is not news to me. But the pandemic made it very real for all of us. As you know, the outstanding mRNA vaccines did not come out of the blue. Their discovery, like all innovation, relies on long-term investment in scientists and their research. In fact, the European Commission had been investing in mRNA vaccine research since the early 2010s. However, in Europe we did not have a BARDA, like in the United States, which prepares for the case of an emergency. That was an obvious disadvantage. So we created HERA to anticipate threats and potential health crises. And HERA works closely with our Horizon Europe research programme, to close the circle from blue sky discovery all the way to scaling up life-saving measures.
Global cooperation in R&D is crucial for discovery. That is why HERA and CEPI, for example, have recently signed a letter of intent. They will cooperate on developing next generation vaccines, including for COVID-19, as part of our Vaccines 2.0 Strategy. Horizon Europe is providing EUR 70 million. And I am very pleased that our clinical trials partnership for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria between European and developing countries has recently agreed to co-run calls for proposals with your Foundation.
Which takes me to lesson four: manufacturing capacity. Having safe and effective vaccines is not enough. We needed manufacturing capacity, as well open supply chains. At the height of the pandemic, we saw shortages across the vaccine value chain, from bioreactor bags to vials, lipids and even syringes. So we set up a Task Force to work with industry, with global partners, to remove these bottlenecks. This helped ramp up monthly production capacity in the EU, from 20 million vaccine doses at the beginning of 2021 to around 300 million vaccine doses per month by the second half of the year. Having learnt this lesson, we have now set up the EU-FAB, which is an ever-warm network of production capacities to quickly ramp up vaccines production in the future.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
So far Europe has sent more than 2.5 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to 168 countries. This is my fifth lesson: cooperation and solidarity must be global. At the start of the pandemic, there was no appropriate global framework to allow for fair sharing of vaccines and other medical countermeasures. So we helped set up the ACT-A and COVAX, which we financed with EUR 3 billion, and we donated half a billion vaccine doses to lower-income countries. But yes, more can be done. This is why we are supporting developing countries directly: through financing, regulatory capacity-building, and technology transfers, to build-up their own vaccine manufacturing capacity. We are working with Senegal, Rwanda, South Africa and Ghana to produce mRNA vaccines that are made in Africa, for Africans. And we are taking a similar approach now in Latin America. Because it is regional resilience that builds global health resilience.
The sixth and final lesson concerns the global health system. Over the years, global health has been consistently underfunded and neglected. Not by the likes of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is doing exemplary work. The key is to be prepared, and this means keeping up the investment and focus in global health, at all times. I am glad that we agreed to create the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Fund. The European Commission, together with US President Biden, have each committed USD 450 million. And this is just the start. With reinforced funding, we still step up surveillance of cross-border health threats, strengthen health systems, and support training and education.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I know we still have a long way to go, but thanks to all of your dedication to global health and equity, I believe we are on the right track. Next month, the European Commission will bring forward the EU Global Health Strategy – it is our proposal to the world on how to work better together in partnership to advance the common goal of global health. And of course, it will draw on the lessons I have just outlined. I look forward to continuing our close work together. And I wish you a rewarding conference.
Thank you.
Source – EU Commission