European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asserted on Friday Europe has to continue investing to make sure that vaccines can be produced and distributed at affordable prices, APA reports citing Teletrader. [ Ссылка ] #eudebates #coronavirusitalla #Covid_19 #coronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #Corona #COVD19 #Health #EUCO #COVID #Eurogroup #EXITstrategy #Economy #Eurobond #Eurobonds

Speaking ahead of the G20 meeting, Von der Leyen said that 94 countries with high income and 92 countries with low and middle income confirmed their engagement in COVAX, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines. "I will tell G20 leaders tomorrow it is important to maintain economic support measures as long as needed," she said.

Von der Leyen stated that the European Union will co-host a global summit next year and added that she is "hopeful" that with Biden, the US will join as well. "The US supports conclusions of the Paris agreement and I'm hopeful it will rejoin the climate accord," she concluded.

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The upcoming G20 Summit this weekend could mark a new beginning for global cooperation. 2020 has been a very difficult year. [ Ссылка ] #eudebates #coronavirusitalla #Covid_19 #coronavirus #CoronavirusOutbreak #Corona #COVD19 #Health #EUCO #COVID #Eurogroup #EXITstrategy #Economy #Eurobond #Eurobonds But the G20 rose to the challenge and it provided leadership. In fact, the G20 has proven a strong pillar and a key partner for the European Union, helping us to keep international cooperation running.

Some of the main areas we have been working on in the G20 context are health, the economy, climate change and better environmental protection to prevent future disasters. And in all these four areas, Europe has recently made decisive contributions alongside the G20 and has driven the agenda forward on the global stage.

So let me refer to these topics. First of all, of course, global health: The coronavirus pandemic has caused an unprecedented shock to the entire world, in terms of lives lost, livelihood and of course economic costs. Naturally, our top priority is to stop the virus. Not only in Europe, but in the world. And for this we need to continue investing, to make sure that vaccines and therapeutics can be mass-produced and can be distributed globally at affordable prices. We have been instrumental in helping set up the ACT-Accelerator and its COVAX Facility, these are our main tools to achieve the wide distribution.

Now, as of 2 November, 94 high-income countries have confirmed their participation in COVAX, and 92 low- and middle-income countries. The objective is to purchase 2 billion doses by the end of 2021 for the low- and middle-income countries. Pledges of USD 1.8 billion have recently been made for procuring vaccines through COVAX for the low- and middle-income countries. More will be needed in 2021 for vaccine procurement. So the estimates are around USD 5 billion. And funding is also needed for testing and treatment in the ACT-Accelerator. The total needs were estimated at USD 38 billion of which USD 4 billion have been made available so far. The funding needs for the ACT-Accelerator seem to be very big, very large, but they are small in comparison with the costs of this pandemic. And this is why I have written to the G20 together with Erna Solberg, Cyril Ramaphosa and Dr Tedros to ask for support to mobilise the funds needed.

Let me stress another point in the context of the pandemic: The world needs to be better prepared to protect humanity against future pandemics. We have to learn our lessons. And of course, we will need to work together beyond the current coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization should play a leading role in this field. And yes, it needs to draw the lessons from the current pandemic and improve its overall effectiveness. In fact, all countries need to better work together for improving global health security. That is a new topic.

And to support these efforts the European Union will co-host next year a Global Health Summit with the Italian G20 Presidency. That is the point where it has to be discussed. And while the United States has resisted engaging on this topic so far, I am very hopeful now, with the new President-elect, that this will change. Indeed, the next administration has already committed to increase multilateral cooperation, including in the health field.

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