Morocco Poised to Become COVID Vaccine Hub for Africa with EU Support

Responding to a question about the role Morocco can play due to its positioning as a crossroads to Africa to support Europe’s sovereignty in the areas of the life economy and become a platform for Africa, the European Commission spokesperson indicated that "if pharmaceutical companies make a clear and structured proposal, bringing together all the conditions for a satisfactory production chain in Morocco, including the technical, regulatory and licensing conditions, the European Commission could participate in the financing of a vaccine production unit in the Kingdom".

For him, it is "important that Africa equips itself with an endogenous vaccine production capacity". Moreover, "this infrastructure is necessary beyond the Coronavirus pandemic". Thus, "discussions are underway on this subject between the European Union and the African Union," he added, specifying that "the financial instruments available to the Commission, in particular the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+), are appropriate in supporting public-private partnerships in general and in this field in particular".

The spokesperson for the European executive also recalled that the European Commission has raised 456 million euros in bilateral aid to meet the current health and socio-economic needs in Morocco as part of the response to the coronavirus.