Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-23-Speech-2-391"
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would first of all like to take this opportunity to thank the Secretariat of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in Parliament for the support it has given me. I would also like to thank all the shadow rapporteurs, as well as Mr Van Hecke, who preceded me in covering this dossier, for the excellent work carried out and for managing to maintain the unity of our institution right through to the end.
Last but not least, it is vital to underline the efforts made to date in terms of the transfer of research and technological development to southern countries. The ALDE Group is ready to give its assent because it believes that a ‘no’ would send out a negative signal to the countries most in need, and would be irresponsible on the part of the European Union given that the reopening of the WTO negotiations is unrealistic.
However, this does not change the fact that we continue to have reservations about the efficiency of the mechanism studied and approved by the WTO. For this reason, and I am almost at the end now, I would like to confirm that the EU will not stop here. Parliament will do everything it can to ensure that the guarantees that have been given over the past few months will be honoured in practice.
Therefore we ask Commissioner Mandelson, who in his letter confirmed that he did not intend to negotiate TRIPS-plus provisions, to remove from the draft Economic Partnership Agreement with the Caribbean countries the request for adherence to and acceptance of the obligations of the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Patent Law Treaty and the intellectual property provisions of Directive 2004/48/EC on the enforcement of intellectual property rights, which unequivocally resemble TRIPS-plus provisions.
In my opinion, this has been Parliament’s greatest strength in the campaign to promote access to medicines in the developing and less-developed countries where they are most needed. The right to health and access to health at affordable prices are fundamental rights and should be guaranteed for all citizens. Unfortunately we know only too well that this is not always the case: all too often the prices imposed by the pharmaceutical industry are too high, with the result that countries where they are most needed find themselves in difficulty.
For this reason, as I have already said on several occasions, both in the Committee on International Trade and in plenary, Parliament could not blindly accept the Protocol amending the TRIPS Agreement as if it were a universal panacea, and then consider the matter resolved. Parliament wanted more to be done, at least within the European Union, because the European Union can and must do more.
Even in the light of the regrettable events of this summer, such as the exchange of letters with Thailand, even if partially resolved, the European Parliament, which has always been a great advocate of using all the flexibilities offered by the TRIPS Agreement, could not give the go-ahead for the ratification of the protocol without obtaining real and effective guarantees from the Commission and the Council.
I think it is fair to stress that during these months of close collaboration with the Commission and the Council, we have undoubtedly achieved an important goal for the European Union, by putting an essentially technical dossier at the top of the European political agenda.
I believe that the end result can be qualified as a success, not only for this reason, but above all because we have succeeded in making progress in extremely sensitive areas, such as encouraging the use of the flexibilities provided for under the TRIPS Agreement so that we can promote access to essential medicines at affordable prices within the framework of national public health programmes.
I particularly support the explicit reference contained in the Council Statement – presented on Monday – to Article 30 of the TRIPS Agreement. For my group, this represents a guarantee and an assurance that Member States will be able to use this instrument without coming under pressure and that there will be easier access to medicines in countries where they are most needed.
Secondly: I am also delighted at the results obtained in terms of TRIPS-plus, namely the more stringent provisions as regards those provided for under the TRIPS Agreement. Parliament, the Council and the Commission have agreed that there should be no negotiations in future bilateral or regional agreements with developing countries on provisions that might have negative consequences for health and access to medicines.
Despite this, while recognising the efforts of the Portuguese Presidency, I would like to ask whether the text of the statement can be further improved, particularly in the section referring to poor developing countries. This expression could create confusion, since it is now customary to refer only to developing countries and to the category of less-developed countries. To insert a new category would complicate the situation. Above all, it is important to stress that all developing countries, hence even countries such as Brazil, India, etc., must be able to use the current system without running the risk of pejorative provisions being introduced in future."@en1
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