EU Health Commissioner Calls for More Preparedness on Eve of EU-AU Summit
Pandemics & Emergencies 17/02/2022 • &
Charles Michel, President of the European Council

European Union President Charles Michel congratulated African countries for their efforts to stimulate more vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent, in a upbeat opening address at the European Union-African Union Summit, which began Thursday.  

But in a more sobering note Wednesday, Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, called on global health players to prioritize preparations for the next pandemic. 

“The pandemic has been a challenge for all of us. For our citizens, for our societies,” Michel said in his opening remarks at the Summit in Brussels. “It opened our eyes and showed us our strengths, our weaknesses, our successes, our failures.”

European Union-African Union Summit opens, 17 Feb 2022

Against those challenges, he lauded the recent AU moves on achieving more vaccine self-sufficiency:  

“We have to look at what you have been doing in the African Union. In less than a year, you launched the manufacture of four vaccines to reduce pharmaceutical dependence on the African continent. And this is a project you devised for Africans, by Africans. Vaccine production capacity has been set up in South Africa, Senegal and Rwanda.” 

“For us as Europeans, we should be looking at a new way of working, of cooperating with you.” 

Michel was referring to BioNTech’s announcement Wednesday that it would set up modular “BioNTainer” vaccine production facilities in Rwanda and Senegal by mid-2022. 

That, in addition to South Africa’s production of the J&J vaccine, and a new WHO-backed mRNA vaccine hub in South Africa, which was the focus of a high-level WHO visit last week. 

In its gala event in Marburg, Germany on Wednesday, BioNTech executives said they will ship the plug-and-play vaccine facilities to Rwanda and Senegal in 2 modules of six standard freight containers, by mid-2022. 

The BioNTech announcement has been praised by leading African Union figures, including Africa CDC’s John Nkengasong and special envoy Michel Sidibé.

South Africa’s dilemma

But not everyone may be as delighted about the BioNTech initiative.   

Although South Africa was explicitly mentioned as a third “possible” participant in a BioNTech press release – President Cyril Ramaphosa was noticeably absent from the stage of Wednesday’s launch in Marburg – which featured the heads of state of Senegal, Rwanda and Ghana – alongside WHO and Africa CDC.  

Entering the Brussel’s summit on Thursday, Ramaphosa told reporters that he remains interested in pushing ahead on discussions about a temporary waiver of intellectual property restrictions on  COVID-19 vaccine production.

“We are going to discuss the TRIPS waiver,” he shouted back to a press pool – in reference to the hotly-debated waiver that has been sitting before the World Trade Organization TRIPS for over a year now. 

‘Not yet’ convinced by Europe’s moves

While Ramaphosa acknowledged that Europe had stepped up its vaccine donations, he said that  he was “not yet” convinced by the European moves. 

“We need to move through the TRIPS dispensation where we can make our own vaccines, and that will be very important,” said the South African leader who has placed his vaccine production bets on a new WHO-supported mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub, that would develop open-access brands of mRNA vaccines for not only COVID, but other diseases. 

That hub is centered around a group of Cape Town research and manufacturing institutions. 

But some of the hub’s success will depend on how easily it can navigate around existing patent rules on some cutting edge products, like mRNA COVID vaccines. 

Meanwhile, the TRIPS waiver has been staunchly opposed by leading EU countries, such as Germany, as well as by pharma groups that say bilateral deals between country and the private sector are a more stable basis for sustainable expansion of production capacity.  

Invest in health systems – prepare for the future 

Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety

Speaking Wednesday on the eve of the Summit at the 7th EU-Africa Business Forum 2022, Kyriakides stressed that governments need to invest now in measures that can help prepare for future threats, which are sure to come. 

“We must not wait and be complacent. But we need to prepare today for future health emergencies,” Kyriakides said.

Kyriakides noted that while on its part, the EU has been introducing reforms to strengthen a “European Health Union”, the pandemic has expanded awareness that regional preparedness is no longer sufficient.  

 “In order for us to be truly prepared for emerging health threats, we need to be prepared globally,” she said.

In a related move, the European Investment Bank also pledged Thursday to commit some €500 million to a joint WHO-EU initiative strengthening African health systems on the continent.  Most countries continue to fall far short of the longstanding Abuja Declaration to allocate 15% of national government spending on health – and the pandemic has created further setbacks.

Partnering with the African Union 

Against that context, the EU wants to partner more with the African Union on challenges highlighted by the pandemic, such as the need to reinforce global disease surveillance, and building capacity to undertake emergency countermeasures. 

She also pledged the EU’s readiness to assist in building up preparedness by supporting the African Medicines Agency (AMA) and the African Preparedness and Response Authority (APRA). 

She called for the diversification of international supply chains and the resolution of bottlenecks in addition to the expansion of global production of vaccines and therapeutics. 

“Team Europe”, which includes the EU, EU Member states and European financial institutions, is supporting Africa in this regard with more than €1 billion to create an enabling environment for African vaccine manufacturing, and to tackle barriers related to supply chains and demand, she noted.

She also highlighted that the ongoing partnership between the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Africa CDC is resulting in mutual learning and improved health security for everyone.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also strengthened the mandate of the ECDC so it will be able to support epidemic and outbreak responses, and establish a more structured cooperation with public health actors in Africa.

Pledging the EU’s contined support for the AMA, she described its creation as a crucial moment in Africa’s journey towards a strengthened regulatory system, which will ultimately contribute to the promotion of sovereignty in Africa.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to build healthier, more resilient and more equitable societies, Kyriakides also underlined. But to achieve this, a number of ingredients are essential: 

“They include the availability of vaccines and therapeutics, but also innovation, data and information sharing. And equally important are the sustainable and locally led development as well as a reformed Global Health architecture. The key ingredient though, are partnerships, trusted and effective collaboration, which needs to be based on the exchange of ideas of experiences and perspectives,” she concluded. 

Summit – focus on health systems and vaccine production 

Health is just one of about eight themes of focus at the two-day Summit – along with education, agriculture, climate change, finance and global governance. 

But in the wake of the destabilization created by the pandemic it clearly has even greater importance to participants now – in comparison with past years. 

The EU and AU leaders also are meeting against the backdrop of high regional geopolitical tensions – posed by the continuing threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A Summit press briefing reaffirmed the prior EU commitment to provide 700 million vaccine doses by mid-2022 to developing countries, of which at least 450 million would go to Africa. 

“Team Europe has exported more than half of its production since the crisis began; it supported the creation of ACT-A [the WHO-supported Act Accelerator] which has delivered more than one billion doses (including 350 million vaccines for Africa). And European countries have shared doses destined for their own citizens, including 125 million to African countries where it is the principal donor.” 

Emmanuel Macron, President of France

Along with Charles Michel, the Summit is being hosted by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanual Macron, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council. 

In his keynote remarks before the Summit, Macron also reaffirmed the need to support African health systems, wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown all of our agenda into the air. It’s been more difficult for African countries to deal with COVID because it is a health, economic and social crisis which has been brought to bare on more fragile economies which are on the verge of development, making it even more costly. African budgets do not have the ability to absorb these shocks as ours do,” said the French president.

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