Plenary focus - April 2021

Instead of imposing a ‘Green Certificate’ that causes major concerns for scientists, as well as data protection and fundamental freedoms, the European Commission should focus on increasing vaccine production worldwide. April 26th is World Intellectual Property Day and Ursula Von der Leyen must stop being the international champion of big pharmas’ patents. Nothing has been learnt from past mistakes: the EU must now support TRIPs waiver and ensure full transparency in the second round of negotiations with the pharmaceutical industry for 2022. We demand full transparency on all the terms, including prices and accountability! Our call for an inquiry committee is the only way to make sure that citizens and MEPs are on board in the process.

This agreement largely achieves the objectives we set out following the Brexit vote nearly five years ago: it protects citizens’ rights and the peace process in Ireland; it also avoids the most damaging aspects of other EU trade agreements, namely social and environmental dumping, as well as fiscal dumping; and it protects human rights. Having helped shape the agreement, our group will work with our friends in the British labour movement, and social and environmental organisations to ensure its full implementation, and to lay the foundations for developing further cooperation.

We must ensure that the proposed Digital Green Certificate will not lead to discrimination of any sort. For us, the only way to achieve this is to guarantee access to free-of-charge testing for everyone in member states, and for Covid-19 vaccines to be treated as a global public good - one that can be made available to all in a timely manner.

European countries already spend massive amounts of public money on defence. Yet, in the midst of a pandemic, the European Union decides to create a brand new defence fund. We should invest in peace, in health, in international cooperation - not in wars.’

The new regulation for the EIT will contribute to the implementation of the Green Deal and to help the post-Covid19 recovery in Europe. By decentralising EIT activities as well as covering new sectors, such as cultural and creative, these have all come at a time when the importance of science and innovation have been universally acknowledged. The EIT is an example of we can do better together at the European Union.

This resolution on the Register for Lobby Transparency is a step in the right direction. However, we lost a year of negotiation on an inter-institutional agreement that clearly lacks ambition and retains the status-quo. It’s now time to act: MEPs should commit to only meeting with registered lobbyists and have these meetings published. Only when we have full transparency on lobbyists can citizens’ trust in the EU be restored.