It is my honour to join you at the WORLD EXPO DUBAI and to introduce today’s conference.
First of all, I would like express my warm thanks to my colleague, Commissioner Kyriakides, who kindly agreed to launch this Conference with me, despite the fact that her schedule did not allow her to travel.
I am grateful to be here in person, to exchange directly with my fellow speakers and with you in the audience.
As you know, we are in the middle of the week dedicated to “Agriculture and Livelihoods”.
To me, this is a very fitting title. It reminds us that agriculture supports our livelihoods; not only our farmers and their families, but every one of us across society: our everyday lives rest on a secure supply of safe and nutritious food.
Our food and farming is more than just a sector of the economy; it is a way of life.
If we want to continue this way of life, then we cannot continue with “business as usual”.
The United Nations Food Systems Summit has made it very clear that we need bold actions to transform the ways we produce, process and consume food across the world.
In the European Union, we have developed a clear roadmap with the Farm to Fork Strategy, which is at the heart of our European Green Deal.
From the beginning, let me say that the Farm-to-Fork Strategy is a Strategy of cooperation. The EU stands ready to cooperate with all countries who want to work towards sustainable food systems.
Together, we must work for global food systems that are environmentally sustainable: that have a neutral or positive climate impact; that work with natural resources, not against them; andreverse the loss of biodiversity;
We must work for systems that are socially sustainable: that ensure food security and public health, making sure that everyone has access to sufficient levels of nutrition;
And finally, we must work for food systems that are economically sustainable: that preserve the affordability of food, and also generate rewarding incomes for farmers, foster competitiveness, and promote fair trade.
To achieve each of these goals, research and innovation will be crucial.
That is why I am extremely happy to be here today, to discuss with you how we can use research and innovation to create modern and sustainable food systems together: through Green Alliances and research initiatives at the highest levels, as well as innovative projects and nature-based solutions that we can put in place on the ground.
With this in mind, I thank you for your attention, and I look forward to our discussion.
Let me first thank Ambassador Claes and the Belgian pavilion, for hosting tonight’s dinner.
It is a pleasure to sit down and share food with all of you in person.
The Covid crisis has reminded us about the value of sharing meals together.
The pandemic has also reminded us about the importance of open trade and keeping food supply chains functioning.
As I’m sure many of you know, the EU is one of the major suppliers for agri-food products to the UAE and the Gulf coast region.
Throughout the pandemic, we have worked hard to maintain this supply. As we slowly begin to emerge from the pandemic, we hope to boost this supply, and to share more of our products with this part of the world.
Since 2019, we have been running a promotion campaign in this region using the slogan “More Than Food”.
The “More Than Food” campaign tells the story of what makes our products special.
It is a story of Safety – all EU food products comply with strict standards and controls, and are traceable from farm to fork. Because the EU checks everything, from pesticide use to packaging, consumers can enjoy European-labelled food products with the assurance that they are safe.
It is a story of Quality and Authenticity – as well as upholding modern quality standards and innovation, European foods celebrate traditional methods and flavours. Our products are rich and authentic because they are created among a wide diversity of soils, climates and cultures, following traditions that date back to centuries ago with particular know-how.
Many EU products, including those served tonight, benefit from protected designations of origin or geographical indications. This system helps preserves the link between a product, its territory, and local know-how, ensuring that you, the consumers, benefit from the best, authentic European products.
Finally, it is a story of Sustainability – the EU pushes for more sustainable agricultural practices, with the ambition of becoming a global leader in agro-ecology, as well as innovative agriculture and food science technologies.
For example, some of the products served today are labelled organic. Organic production deliver only a limited environmental impact, while providing consumers with products free from additives, processing aids, GMOs and chemical residues.
With a target of at least 25% of the EU’s agricultural land under organic farming by 2030, more and more products from the EU are certified as organic.
Without further ado, I would like to thank all of you who have gathered for tonight’s dinner.
I hope you enjoy the creations offered by our distinguished chefs coming from the Netherlands, Belgium, and my home country of Poland.
And I hope you enjoy the safe, authentic and sustainable food and beverages, produced by farmers from across the European Union.
Image of a Wolf Rayet star – potentially before collapsing into a black hole. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
Astronomers are increasingly drawing back the curtains on black holes. In the past few years, we have finally captured actual photos of these fearsome creatures and measured the gravitational waves – ripples in spacetime – that they create when colliding. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about black holes. One of the biggest enigmas is exactly how they form in the first place.
My colleagues and I now believe we have observed this process, providing some of the best indications yet of exactly what happens when a black hole forms. Our results are published in two papers in Nature and the Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomers believe, on both observational and theoretical grounds, that most black holes form when the center of a massive star collapses at the end of its life. The star’s core normally provides pressure, or support, using heat from intense nuclear reactions. But once such a star’s fuel is exhausted and nuclear reactions stop, the inner layers of the star collapse inward under gravity, crushing down to extraordinary densities.
First image of a black hole. Credit: EHT
Most of the time, this catastrophic collapse is halted when the star’s core condenses into a solid sphere of matter, rich in particles called neutrons. This leads to a powerful rebound explosion that destroys the star (a supernova), and leaves behind an exotic object known as a neutron star. But models of dying stars show that if the original star is massive enough (40-50 times the mass of the Sun), the collapse will simply continue unabated until the star is crushed down into a gravitational singularity – a black hole.
Explosive theories
While stars collapsing to form neutron stars are now routinely observed throughout the universe (supernova surveys find dozens of new ones every night), astronomers are not yet entirely sure what happens during the collapse to a black hole. Some pessimistic models suggest the entire star would be swallowed up without much of a trace. Others propose that the collapse to a black hole would produce some other kind of explosion.
For example, if the star is rotating at the time of collapse, some of the infalling material may be focused into jets that escape the star at high velocity. While these jets wouldn’t contain much mass, they’d pack a big punch: if they slammed into something, the effects might be quite dramatic in terms of the energy released.
Up until now, the best candidate for an explosion from the birth of a black hole has been the strange phenomenon known as long-duration gamma-ray bursts. First discovered in the 1960s by military satellites, these events have been hypothesized to result from jets accelerated to mindboggling speeds by newly formed black holes in collapsing stars. However, a longstanding problem with this scenario is that gamma-ray bursts also expel abundant radioactive debris that continues to shine for months. This suggests most of the star exploded outward into space (as in an ordinary supernova), instead of collapsing inward to a black hole.
While this doesn’t mean a black hole can’t have been formed in such an explosion, some have concluded that other models provide a more natural explanation for gamma ray bursts than a black hole forming. For example, a super-magnetized neutron star could form in such an explosion and produce powerful jets of its own.
Mystery solved?
My colleagues and I, however, recently uncovered a new and (in our view) much better candidate event for creating a black hole. On two separate occasions in the past three years – once in 2019 and once in 2021 – we witnessed an exceptionally fast and fleeting type of explosion that, much like in gamma-ray bursts, originated from a small amount of very fast-moving material slamming into gas in its immediate environment.
By using spectroscopy – a technique that breaks down light into different wavelengths – we could infer the composition of the star that exploded for each of these events. We discovered that the spectrum was very similar to so-called “Wolf-Rayet stars” – a very massive and highly-evolved type of star, named after the two astronomers, Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet, that first detected them. Excitingly, we were even able to rule out a “normal” supernova explosion. As soon as the collision between the fast material and its environment ceased, the source practically vanished – rather than glowing for a long time.
This is exactly what you would expect if, during the collapse of its core, the star ejected only a small amount of material with the rest of the object collapsing downward into an enormous black hole.
The new study observed two events that may belong to third type of explosion, lasting only a short time. Credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
While this is our favoured interpretation, it’s not the only possibility. The most prosaic one is that it was a normal supernova explosion, but that a vast shell of dust formed in the collision, concealing the radioactive debris from view. It’s also possible that the explosion is of a new and unfamiliar type, originating from a star we’re not familiar with.
To answer these questions, we will need to search for more such objects. Until now these kinds of explosions have been difficult to study because they are fleeting and hard to find. We had to use several observatories together in quick succession to characterize these explosions: the Zwicky Transient Facility to discover them, the Liverpool Telescope and the Nordic Optical Telescope to confirm their nature, and large high-resolution observatories (the Hubble Space Telescope, Gemini Observatory, and the Very Large Telescope) to analyze their composition.
While we didn’t initially know exactly what we were seeing when we first discovered these events, we now have a clear hypothesis: the birth of a black hole.
More data from similar events may soon be able to help us verify or falsify this hypothesis and establish the link to other types of unusual, fast explosions that our team and others have been finding. Either way, it seems this truly is the decade we crack the mysteries of black holes.
Written by Daniel Perley, Reader of Astrophysics, Liverpool John Moores University.
Scientists point to published medical case reports of young women developing unusual breast cancers located directly underneath the skin –where they placed their cell phones in their bra. A 2020 case control study found cell phone use significantly increased breast cancer risk, particularly in women who used phones close to their breasts.
Devra Davis, Ph. D., president of Environmental Health Trust has been working for decades on the environmental causes of breast cancer. She is an epidemiologist and toxicologist and has presented findings before Congress on the dangers of wireless radiation. Davis was also instrumental in having smoking banned from planes and she was part of a team awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for scientific research on climate change. She now is raising awareness about the health risks of cell phone radiation. Her letters reference the scientific reviews that conclude that cell phone radiation can cause cancer (Carlberg and Hardell, 2017 ; Miller et al., 2018). Senior advisors to the World Health Organization have concluded that if cell phone radiation were evaluated at this time, it would be considered a probable, if not fully confirmed human carcinogen {Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (European Parliament)} and (Belpoggi, 2021; Melnick, 2019; Portier, 2021).
Attorney Courtney Kelley (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4veG7CoPm6o) in Denver, Colorado and Margot Shaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvFUMicGyi0) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are two of many women who carried their cell phones in their bras only to develop unusual breast cancers in the areas where the phones were carried. While Kelley wound up having to undergo a double mastectomy, Shaw’s cancer even presented itself in the shape of a phone. Doctors of both women concurred that the cancers were caused by the women having carried their phones in their bras.
Numerous doctors recommend that people keep the phone away from the brain and body, especially the breast.
● EHT organized a conference at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club featuring breast surgeon Dr. Lisa Bailey, former president of the American Cancer Society of California who gave a lecture recommending women keep cell phones out of the bra.
● The Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition created educational curriculum for classrooms to prevent breast cancer. Go to “Let’s Talk Prevention Classroom Module 3 Cell Phone and Wireless to download the curriculum.
● In 2017 the California Department of Health released an advisory on how to reduce cell phone radiation stating, “Carry your cell phone in a backpack, briefcase, or purse; NOT in a pocket, bra or belt holster.”
● The American Academy of Pediatrics and the North Carolina Public Health Department’s Department both state “Avoid carrying your phone against the body like in a pocket, sock, or bra. Cell phone manufacturers cannot guarantee that the amount of radiation you are absorbing will be at a safe level.”
Given the numbers of credible scientific studies on the dangers of carrying phones close to the body, especially near sensitive breast tissue, “the wireless industry will tell you that there’s no harm from wireless but that’s not what the many peer-reviewed scientific studies or a growing group of experts will tell you. The fine print warnings included in wireless technology packaging is clearly warning users to keep the devices away from direct body contact” said Davis,
The fine print warnings exist because cell phones emit radiofrequency (RF) radiation. Manufacturers premarket test phones in positions with a separation distance between the body and phone to ensure the phone RFR emissions are compliant with U.S. limits for human exposure. However, if the phone is used at a closer distance, the body can absorb far more RF radiation than US regulations allow- up to eleven times as much in some models!
EHT has a page of “Fine Print Warnings” on its website. Here are some examples of recommended distances in the devices’ fine print warnings:
● Apple iPhone 13–5mm distance
● Google Pixel 5a (5G) – 1 cm distance
● Samsung Galaxy Z 5G – 1.5 cm distance
The Google Pixel 5a (5G) safety information states, “Keep the phone away from your body to meet the distance requirement.”
These fine print warnings were a key part of a major federal lawsuit EHT recently won. Although EHT has repeatedly requested that the FCC (the U. S. government agency with authority) update its RF rules- unchanged since 1996- so that all wireless devices are tested in body contact positions, rather than with a separation, the FCC made a decision in 2019 that “this is unnecessary” and that it “ ensure[ed] that relevant information is made available to the public.”
EHT argued that most people were fully unaware of these fine print instructions. In fact, studies show that if cell phones and wireless devices are in body contact positions (without a separation distance), the RF exposure can violate U.S. government safety limits. Some phones were found to violate limits up to 11 times the safety limit when the cell phone is pressed to the body.
EHT and over a dozen others then sued the FCC and received a favorable ruling. The Court ordered the FCC to revisit these RF testing procedures as well as the safety limits for wireless RF radiation.
“Most people are not aware of these instructions. Even more importantly, wireless safety limits are now 25 years old. So, we recommend keeping even more distance than the manufacturers’ instructions,” Davis added, “Cell phones transmit radiofrequency radiation all the time, even when you are not talking on the phone.”
For more information on Environmental Health Trust, visit www.ehtrust.org.
Theodora Scarato
Environmental Health Trust
theodora.scarato@ehtrust.og
Attacks on kindergartens and schools have been a sad reality for children in eastern Ukraine over the last eight years, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on Friday. Since the beginning of the conflict, more than 750 schools have been damaged.
On Thursday, according to media reports and the Ukrainian Government, shells fired by separatists in the east, hit and damaged a kindergarten in the Luhansk region. There were no reported casualties.
Attacks on kindergartens and schools have been a sad reality for children in eastern Ukraine over the past eight years. We call on all parties to respect the Safe Schools Declaration and protect children and their families from attacks.
In a statement, the UN agency said that attacks on schools – since fighting began in the eastern region between Government forces and mostly pro-Russian separatists in 2014 – have been disrupting access to education for thousands of children on both sides of the contact line.
Furthermore, the agency said children in eastern Ukraine live in one of the world’s most mine-contaminated stretches of land. “Every day, they live, play, and go to and from school in areas littered with landmines, unexploded ordnances, and other deadly explosive remnants of war”.
Highlighting that the conflict has taken a severe toll on the psychosocial wellbeing of an entire generation of children, UNICEF called on all parties to protect children and their caregivers from attacks.
Safe School Declaration
Calling on all parties to respect the Safe School Declaration, the agency added that protection must be provided to keep children and their caregivers safe, regardless of the circumstances they might find themselves in.
According to recent data, for children living in conflict, education has become even more dangerous. In 2020, there were 535 verified attacks on schools, an increase of 17 per cent compared to 2019.
The Safe Schools Declaration which opened for State endorsement in Oslo, Norway, in May 2015, is a commitment to better protect students, teachers, schools and universities during armed conflict, to support the continuation of education during war, and to put in place concrete measures to deter the military use of schools.
To date, 111 States have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration. Ukraine did so in November 2019.
“Educational facilities should remain a safe space where children can be protected from threats and crises and a haven where they can learn, play, and grow to their full potential”, the statement reiterated. “A child’s right to education cannot be safeguarded in conflict settings without education itself being protected”, UNICEF underlined.
UNICEF on the ground
Since the onset of the conflict, the UN agency has been on the ground across eastern Ukraine, delivering psychosocial support and mine risk education to over 180,000 children, youth, and caregivers.
UNICEF is also supporting repairs to damaged schools and kindergartens and distributing vital classroom supplies such as educational kits, furniture sets and sports equipment.
Reiterating its commitment to continue to work with conflict-affected communities to provide much needed humanitarian support, UNICEF said that it will continue to address the urgent needs of the most vulnerable children and families.
WALTHAM (CBS) – The battle over books in Waltham continues as LGBT literature comes front and center for those in support and against its messages.
For the second time in two weeks, the “Little Queer Library” in Waltham had all its LGBT literature cleared out, but the curators don’t believe the books are going to their intended readers. READ MORE:Signal At Wilmington Rail Crossing Where Woman Was Killed Failed Again, Town Officials Say Katie Cohen and her partner Krysta Petrie opened the ‘Little Library’ in front of their home on Trapelo Road.
Cohen and Petrie have supplied the library themselves since they created it in 2020. The couple decided to gear their books toward LGBT youth after hearing feedback from the community.
“We realized there was really limited ways to get those books,” said Cohen. “They are hard to find, they are often expensive, and a lot of people are looking for that kind of representation. They are looking for themselves on the pages.”
Little Queer Library on Trapelo Rd in Waltham (WBZ-TV)
“They only pulled the things that were focused on LGBT people or about LGBT people,” Cohen said. “It really does feel like someone is trying to censor what’s out there.”
“You can only read so many books at a time,” said Petrie, who added that there are other ‘Little Libraries’ in the area too. “We have maybe five or six in a one-mile radius and none of them had these kinds of issues.”
On the same day of the second swiping of books, the Waltham School Committee heard a recommendation from their Library Materials Review Committee on whether two LGBT themed books – ‘Gender Queer: A Memoir’ by Maia Kobabe and “This Book is Gay” by Juno Dawson – should be pulled from public school shelves.
That committee voted unanimously to keep the books, which some in the community deemed too sexual or pornographic in nature.
Following the first incident, Cohen and Petrie said they had received nearly 200 book donations from the community for the “Little Queer Library.” MORE NEWS:Boston Lifts Proof Of Vaccine Requirement Effective Immediately The couple told WBZ News they have no plans of scaling back the library.
With tensions continuing to mount over the Ukraine crisis, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Friday that he still believed military conflict in Europe “will not happen” – although if it did, “it would be catastrophic”.
Addressing world leaders at the Munich Security Conference on Friday – amid an intense spike in shelling in eastern Ukraine by opposing sides, and a concentration of Russian troops around the country’s borders – Mr Guterres said that it was high time to “seriously de-escalate” the crisis.
“There is no alternative to diplomacy,” the UN chief said, adding that “all issues, including the most intractable, must be addressed through diplomatic frameworks”.
Quoting from the United Nations Charter, which Mr. Guterres defended as a fundamental pillar of international law, he said that all nations “shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means, in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered”.
All parties should be “extremely careful with their rhetoric”, the UN Secretary-General continued, after noting that the threat to global security today “is more complex and probably higher” than during the Cold War.
During that era, Mr. Guterres explained that safeguards and safety checks existed to allow nations to prevent crises by using “back-channels”.
MSC/Marc Muelle
Secretary-General António Guterres delivers his speech at the ‘Munich Security Conference’ in Munich, Germany.
Escalation danger
Today however, “many of those systems no longer exist and most of the people trained to use them are no longer here”, he insisted, while “miscommunication or miscalculation can make a minor incident between powers, escalate out of control”.
More than 100 foreign ministers were also due to attend the annual summit in the German city, although Russia’s foreign minister was reportedly not in attendance.
Two coups a week
Turning away from Ukraine, the UN Secretary-General underlined the increased unpredictability and fragility of the global landscape, including in Yemen and Libya.
“Coups used to happen once every couple of years; in 2022, it’s once every couple of weeks”, he said, as he called for intractable geopolitical divides to be contained by “more effective collective security responses”, for which the blueprint is outlined in Our Common Agenda.
Turning to the worldwide threat of global terrorism, Mr. Guterres insisted that the situation in some African countries was “unsustainable…we need robust African peace enforcement and counter-terrorist operations, mandated by the UN Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter, and with stable and predictable funding”.
Peace investment
Rising inequality, the climate crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic also threatened global security, the UN chief said, before urging all countries to step up support for solutions to these threats, as part of a surge in “diplomacy…political will and…investment for peace”.
Urgent actions that were needed now to these “non-traditional security threats” included the full implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change to keep 1.5 degrees alive, support for the the World Health Organization global vaccination strategy and global finance reform, “to enable developing countries to access the resources needed to support their people”.
Covid-19: In Europe but also worldwide: this week, all regions have seen their situation improve: -41% in the US/Canada area, -30% in Africa, -26% in Latin America/Caribbean, -13% in Asia, -9% in Europe and -2% in the Middle East.
On Wednesday, February 16, 2022, Austria announced that it will no longer be necessary to show a vaccination pass at the entrance to hotels, restaurants, concerts and sporting events.
Germany, more cautious than its neighbors, is preparing to relax the restrictions introduced to contain the Covid-19 epidemic in February 2022, as health authorities consider that the worst of the Omicron wave has passed.
The phasing out is to be done in three stages, starting with an end to the measures governing meetings in private settings for people vaccinated or cured of Covid-19. The obligation to show a vaccination pass could then be partially or totally removed.
Portugal announces the end of the health pass and most restrictions “Faced with a situation of pandemic in very significant fall, it was decided an update of the measures still in force,” said Mariana Vieira da Silva, government spokeswoman, at a press conference after a council of ministers.
When these new rules go into effect, a health pass will no longer be required to enter restaurants, tourist establishments or major events.
Displaying a complete vaccination schedule will nevertheless always be required at the Portuguese borders.
Switzerland announced on Wednesday 16 February the lifting of almost all measures to control Covid-19, with only the masking of public transport and health facilities and the isolation of patients being maintained until the end of March.
As of February 17, access to stores, restaurants, cultural institutions, establishments open to the public and events is again possible without a mask or Covid certificate, the Federal Council (government) said in a statement. The requirement for permits for large events, restrictions on private meetings, and capacity restrictions in retail outlets and ski lifts have also been lifted.
Other European countries have already put an end, hopefully definitively, to the vaccine or health pass. This is the case in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Croatia and the Spanish region of Catalonia.
Israel ends the use of the health pass The country was one of the first to introduce a health pass. The pass was not required for access to cafes, restaurants and sports halls, but it was required in cinemas and concert halls.
The Israeli government must also decide in the coming days on the abandonment of the requirement of a PCR test, in order to enter the country, currently open to foreign travelers, said the Prime Minister.
Japan will ease border restrictions to allow foreign students and workers into the country, but tourists will remain banned for now, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Thursday.
An EP delegation will travel to Warsaw next week to look into the rule of law situation in Poland, in the framework of the ongoing Article 7 procedure.
Ten MEPs from the Civil Liberties and Constitutional Affairs committees will be in Poland from Monday 21 to Wednesday 23 February.
During their visit, in addition to long-standing concerns related to the rule of law, MEPs will look into institutional questions arising from the Polish Constitutional Court’s recent decision that national constitutional law takes primacy over the EU Treaties.
The delegation has requested to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński and the Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. They have also scheduled exchanges of views with representatives of political parties both in the Sejm and the Senate, as well as with the National Council for the Judiciary.
As the independence of the judiciary is one of the main concerns regarding rule of law in the country, MEPs will also have meetings with professional associations of judges, prosecutors and lawyers, individual judges and prosecutors affected by disciplinary or criminal proceedings, and former members of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Tribunal.
In order to gather civil society’s views about the state of democracy and the respect of fundamental rights and minorities, they will meet a wide array of NGOs working in the field of rule of law, justice, women’s rights, migration, and LGBTI rights. Finally, and in view of alleged risks to media freedom, they will hear from several media representatives. They will also look into the latest revelations over the use of the Pegasus spyware.
Members of the delegation
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs:
At the end of their visit, there will be a press conference with the co-chairs in the European Parliament Liaison Office in Warsaw, and remotely, on Wednesday 23 February at 14.15. Details on how to attend will be communicated closer to the date.
Background
In view of possible democratic backsliding in Poland and in particular due to the threat to judicial independence, the European Commission initiated in December 2017 an Article 7 procedure to address a possible risk of breach of EU common values. The Parliament has ever since repeatedly asked the Council to act and in September 2020 warned about the continuous deterioration of the situation in the country, pointing to “overwhelming evidence” of those breaches.
Following the October 2021 ruling by the Polish Constitutional, the Polish government’s challenge of the established primacy of EU law was added to Parliament’s long list of concerns. These include the powers to revise the constitution taken on by the Polish parliament since 2015, expedited legislative procedures and electoral law changes; the broad changes to the country’s judiciary, including appointments and disciplinary procedures; the situation of freedom of expression, media freedom and pluralism; and the criminalisation of sexual education and the de facto ban on abortion.
Statement by President von der Leyen at the joint press conference on the global mRNA technology transfer hub
Thank you very much.
Indeed, I think that this is a symbol today for the new partnership we have embarked on. And we have been, indeed, talking a lot about producing mRNA vaccines in Africa. But I think that this goes far beyond. This is mRNA technology designed in Africa, led by Africa, and owned by Africa, with the support of Team Europe. And indeed, we are so deeply convinced of the potential you, dear Cyril, were just describing, that, from the very first moment on, we have backed this initiative without any hesitation, and teamed up with you and the WHO to set up this technology transfer hub. I think that the emphasis has to be on ‘technology transfer’.
We invest EUR 40 million, as the Commission, with Germany, France and Belgium, because we are deeply convinced that it is the right way to go. And indeed, I consider this not only as a major step forward in the fight against the pandemic but also as a major step forward in Africa’s strategic sovereignty when it comes to vaccines. We all know the state of play today. Today, of all the vaccines administered in Africa, 1% is produced in Africa – of all the vaccines. And rightly so, the goal is in 2040 to have reached a level of 60% of vaccines produced in Africa, that are administered in Africa. And this is the precondition.
And here, indeed, I think, dear Cyril, that it is important that, as you said, we limit with this technology transfer the profitability of the IP owners, that is the companies – that was the point you were blaming – while protecting a very precious good. And this is the intellectual property, what scientists have developed. And here, I think that we can find a bridge.
The goal is really to make sure that the technology is transferred, and dismantled, and shown in full scope. And for that, we think that compulsory licencing with limited, deeply cut profits might be a bridge. I see, too, that at the technology transfer hub, at the moment being, we are not there yet because I heard very well that, you, Dr Tedros, my friend, said: ‘publicly available information’. This is not enough. There needs to be the in-depth information about a technology. So we have a common goal. I think that we are able to manage to create the regulatory frame that is necessary to really make it happen that the strategic sovereignty of Africa concerning vaccines is being developed and given.
There is a second point that is outstanding with this hub and spoke model, that is that it is not only about science, it is a lot about skills, it is about high-quality jobs. And indeed, it was mentioned, it is about the regulatory environment for the whole of Africa, that the African Union, for example, is now developing with the African Medicines Agency and the African CDC. You see the complexity of the project. You see the groundbreaking initiative, a completely new approach towards an attitude where the sovereignty of science is given and is protected, while Africa has full access and full ownership – this is so important – of the technology and then the goods that come from that. So many thanks for that. It is a perfect example of what we are able to do when we join forces.
