Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-16-Speech-2-268"
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"en.20031216.6.2-268"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, my heartfelt thanks to the two rapporteurs. The amendments improve the common position, but, as far as I am concerned, it is not necessary to wrap the pharmaceutical industry up in cotton wool any longer or any more. At the start of the second reading, I put a number of questions regarding the new Member States on the table. I shall not pursue these, as I fully agree with what my colleagues Mr Blokland and Mrs Jackson have said on this subject.
The second point is much more fundamental and concerns the manufacture of medicinal products for developing countries that are undergoing a serious health crisis. In early December it became known that AIDS has claimed five million lives over the last five years. This is a serious situation, but there is hope. On 30 August, on the eve of the WTO Conference in Cancun, the United States, the EU and developing countries came to an agreement speeding up the enablement of the manufacture of generic medicinal products for developing countries. It was not an enormous agreement, but it was a start nevertheless. However, we must now put that into practice. I cannot understand why the Council, the Commission and some fellow MEPs are not prepared to do what the European Union decided before the Cancun Conference. The Commission seems to be of the opinion that this matter belongs with the Community patent and national patents legislation. That does not seem to me to be an acceptable stance, because we do have data protection. That is exactly what this legislation is about.
A minute ago, Commissioner, you asked me to name a specific medicinal product that cannot now be manufactured on account of data protection, and AZT is such a medicinal product. Now, as it was at first reading, Parliament is prepared to get involved, and several resolutions have been adopted, for example the report by Mrs Sandbæk from the Committee on Development and Cooperation, which unanimously called for the Doha agreement to be implemented in this legislation. Finally, I have two questions for you, Commissioner. Firstly, you have just said that you are prepared to introduce, in the near future, the legislative measures enabling the implementation of the decision of 30 August. When can we expect a proposal from you, and is it possible that that will take place in January? Secondly, I am assuming that products manufactured in the European Union are always authorised in the EU. Are you now stating that the data protection in this legislation does not constitute the slightest obstacle to the manufacture of generic medicinal products for developing countries by European undertakings? If not, are you prepared to amend this legislation again if necessary?"@en1
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