WHA79 - EU Statement - Item 13.3 – Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement
WHO
79th World Health Assembly
Item 13.3 – Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the WHO Pandemic Agreement
EU Statement
The European Union remains committed to developing an equitable, effective and implementable PABS System that will make a real difference on the ground. We worked hard in the past few weeks with a view to identifying a set of possible landing zones, and we hoped that we could finalise our talks by this Assembly.
We continue to believe that it is necessary to work cooperatively toward a strengthened international framework to prevent, prepare for, and respond to public health emergencies. The Pandemic Agreement, as well as the revised IHR, contain important provisions that will significantly enhance our collective capacity to confront pandemic emergencies, and do so in a more equitable manner. The PABS system has an important role to play in this context. But we need to ensure that the System is also conducive to innovation and R&D for medical countermeasures, and can lead to a robust uptake by the private sector.
We will do all we can to finalise the negotiations by the next Assembly, opening the way to the Pandemic Agreement's entry into force and implementation, with the aim of enhancing global health security for the benefit of all.
Thank you.