Coronavirus: Commissioners Kyriakides and Breton participate in COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination meeting

Today, Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, responsible for Health and Food Safety and Commissioner Thierry Breton, responsible for the Internal Market are participating via video link in a meeting on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination organized by Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. They will discuss fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world, the EU’s support to vaccine manufacturers, and the importance of delivering on the advance purchase agreements. Chancellor Merkel will lead a press conference with regional authorities after the event. Commissioner Kyriakides said: “We have invested in research, in bold decisions by a few brave pharmaceutical companies and speedy work by regulators. The Commission, together with our Member States, are ready to support vaccine manufacturers to quickly step-up production and deliver vaccines. We now call on all companies to ensure predictability and transparency. This is essential to carry out vaccination across the EU and the world.” Commissioner Breton said: “Current challenges in the vaccine production industrial chain call for both immediate and longer term solutions. We will work with industry and Member States to design a European vaccine production scale-up programme. We need a strong joint public/private partnership to repurpose, very fast, the European vaccine industrial base, and give Europe the means to become more resilient.”