MEPs Ciarán Cuffe, Grace O’Sullivan Support EU Resolution Seeking to Waive Intellectual Property Rights on Covid Vaccines.Green MEPs Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O’Sullivan will join with their Greens/EFA colleagues in the European Parliament this evening, to vote in favour of a resolution on intellectual property rights around Covid-19 vaccinations.The resolution relates to the effects of a temporary waiver of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on Covid-19 vaccines, treatment, equipment and manufacturing capacity in developing countries.Speaking ahead of the vote this evening, Green MEP for Dublin, Ciarán Cuffe said:“I strongly support the TRIPS Waiver. While a TRIPS Waiver may not increase vaccine production until 2022, we are not all protected from Covid until there is a high rate of global vaccinations. No one is safe until everyone is safe. Programmes like COVAX, which is helping poorer countries deliver a vaccine roll out, have been hard hit by production bottle-necks. We know the number of variants is on the rise and this could cause problems down the road if most of the global population is waiting to be vaccinated. So we need to take action.”The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament called for the Council and European Commission to support the TRIPS waiver proposal put forward originally by India and South Africa, and to start text-based negotiations as soon as possible.On top of the waiver, they say, the EU needs to lend full support to binding technology transfers for global production on vaccines and other health-related global public goods to scale up on a permanent basis.Green Party MEP for Ireland South, Grace O’Sullivan says the TRIPS Waiver would go some way towards addressing the current inequity of vaccine distribution, globally:“We are not safe from Covid until everyone, globally, is vaccinated. While the Commission is claiming poorer countries have access to vaccine roll out, the reality is that less than 1% of all those in developing nations have been vaccinated. We’ve been seeing the devastating impacts of the huge outbreak in India. GAVI, who oversee the COVAX programme, are reporting that by the end of this month they’ll face a shortfall of 190 million doses. That’s appalling. COVID will be with us for some time yet, and resolving this health and humanitarian crisis cannot be left to market forces. Any intervention that can lead to fairer, faster distribution and, ultimately, less deaths from Covid-19, gets my vote.”ENDS