Every day almost 10,000 people are dying of Covid-19 . Every day the European Commission says “it’s not the time to talk about lifting patents”, lives are being lost. Inaction is killing people. We don’t have time for petty tactics to delay a much needed European Parliament vote on a TRIPS waiver to enable the sharing of intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.
Today, we witnessed yet another outrageous delay from the EU on access to vaccines in Parliament’s Conference of Presidents of political groups. The Left – together with the Greens and S&D – demanded a debate and vote on the TRIPS waiver in next week’s plenary session. While the debate will finally go ahead on Wednesday 19th May , the vote (the only way Parliament can take a position on this) was pushed back to June by the Renew, ECR and EPP groups.
Plenary vote on EU-UK Agreement in limbo pending Brexit deal assurances theparliamentmagazine.eu - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theparliamentmagazine.eu Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Time: Thursday, 15 April, 13.00-13.30 CET.
Venue: Brussels, Altiero Spinelli (1G-3) and remote participation.
At the extraordinary meeting, MEPs on the foreign affairs and trade committees will decide whether to recommend that Parliament give its consent to the agreement currently in provisional application until 30 April. The full House is to take the final decision, as well as adopt a separate resolution, at a future plenary session. The Parliament’s Conference of Presidents has decided not to set a plenary date yet, in order to emphasise the need for the UK side to fully implement the Withdrawal Agreement before doing so.
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At 13.00 on Wednesday, Presidents Sassoli and von der Leyen, and Prime Minister Costa of Portugal will sign a declaration on the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Following the endorsement of the joint declaration by Parliament’s Conference of Presidents last week, the Presidents of the Parliament, the Council and the Commission will address Parliament’s chamber in Brussels and sign the document agreed between their respective institutions. This will set the Conference on the Future of Europe in motion and invite citizens to thoroughly reflect on the direction the EU should be taking on crucial issues, as well as its institutional set-up. This was Parliament’s primary objective throughout the negotiations.
Today, Parliament’s Conference of Presidents approved the joint declaration, which is the foundation for a Conference on the Future of Europe that will …