The leaders of the EU-AU Summit have committed to support fully-fledged African health sovereignty, for future responses to future public health emergencies on the continent.

President Cyril Ramaphosa made the announcement during his working visit in Belgium, where he participated in the two-day, 6th European Union-African Union Summit held from the February 16 to 18.

Ramaphosa was invited by the Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat to participate in the Summit where African and European leaders discussed engagement and partnership between the two world regions in roundtables.

The focus of the summit  included the financing for sustainable and inclusive growth, climate change and energy transition, digital and transport [connectivity and infrastructure].

The EU-AU partnership is structured through the Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) that was an outcome of the 2nd AU-EU Summit in Portugal, in 2007. The JAES is the overall cooperation framework that governs this partnership.

In the deliberations on climate change, Ramaphosa emphasised that the foundation of the partnership needed to be a shared recognition that each country has the right to follow its own development pathway towards shared objectives, such as keeping the global aggregate temperature rise below 1.5 degrees.

“There can be no one-size-fits-all approach to complex issues such as energy transition, due to the very different national circumstances and capacities of countries. All countries need to contribute their best effort, with enabling means of implementation support for developing countries, in particular African countries,” he said.

VACCINES

With regard to the health crisis facing the continent, the World Health Organisation announced at the Summit that Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia as countries will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines on the continent.

South Africa will serve as a Hub for this transfer of a comprehensive technology package and will provide appropriate training to selected manufacturers in partner African and low- and middle-income countries.

Ramaphosa said since being selected as host of the Hub, South Africa had learned the value of a well-functioning eco-system that includes universities, research institutes, public health institutes, pharmaceutical companies, and regulatory bodies

“Working together has massive benefits,” he said. “For example, the partnership between Afrigen and Wits University is very beneficial because Wits has been working on mRNA technology for the past 10 years. Consequently, between Afrigen and the university, they created an mRNA vaccine within two months.”
 


However, the President cautioned that in South Africa, full operationalisation of the mRNA hub has been hampered by intellectual property barriers.

He said the World Trade Organisation intellectual property rights (TRIPS) waiver, when approved, would ensure freedom to operate for entities with the requisite capacity and provide a platform to upgrade existing capabilities.


Leaders supported a common agenda for manufacturing vaccines, medicines, diagnostics, therapeutics and health products in Africa, including investment in production capacities, voluntary technology transfers as well as strengthening of the regulatory framework to enable equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

The African Union and the European Union underlined the urgency of the WTOs contribution to the fight against the pandemic and to the recovery of the global economy, and committed to engage constructively towards an agreement on a comprehensive WTO response to the pandemic, which includes trade related, as well as intellectual property related aspects.

The Summit agreed that the African Union Commission and the European Union Commission will, with the assistance of the World Trade Organisation Director-General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, work together to deliver a solution.

In a declaration at the close of the Summit, African and European leaders committed themselves to a Joint Vision for a renewed Partnership to build a common future, as closest partners and neighbours.

The aim of the Joint Vision is to consolidate a renewed partnership for solidarity, security, peace and sustainable and sustained economic development and prosperity for our citizens and for our future generations, bringing together the people, regions and organisations of Africa and Europe.

The renewed partnership will encompass the security and prosperity of citizens, the protection of human rights for all, gender equality and women's empowerment in all spheres of life, respect for democratic principles and good governance.