No EU money for nuclear energy
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Decarbonise European industry, not deindustrialise Europe / EPP Rapporteur wants to trigger innovation and protect and create jobs
The European Parliament's rapporteur for the Emissions Trading Scheme, MEP Peter Liese clearly ruled out spending money from the EU scheme on nuclear energy in the draft legislation he presented on Friday. This was Liese's reaction to the debate in recent weeks.
"Personally, I believe that the European Commission's proposal on taxonomy is not acceptable as it stands. Irrespective of this, however, we have to be very strict when it comes to EU funds for innovation. The European Commission has proposed that all fossil fuels be excluded from the modernisation fund, which is intended above all to help Central and Eastern European Member States make the transition to climate neutrality. This means that it cannot be funded if a company invests in the most modern gas-fired power plant in the world and converts it to CO2-neutral fuels in the short term. For nuclear energy, however, there are no requirements at all. In my view, this is completely unacceptable. I therefore propose that money from those the funds can only be spent on renewable energies, energy efficiency and other indisputable measures. I propose the same for the Innovation fund. The funds together comprise about 72 billion euros until 2030 (with a CO2 price of 50€).
European Medicines Agency recommends market authorisation of Novavax vaccine - official authorisation by EU Commission expected in the next hours
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Novavaxv vaccine can make important contribution to pandemic response worldwide / Accelerated authorisation of Omicron-adapted mRNA vaccines / Vaccinate now and get boosted - Waiting for Novavax or adapted vaccines can be fatal
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has just recommended authorisation of the Corona vaccine from the American company Novavax. The protein-based vaccine requires two vaccinations three weeks apart for full protection. The clinical studies attest the vaccine an effectiveness of about 90 per cent. MEP and health policy spokesman of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats), Peter Liese, said: "The 90 percent was achieved in clinical trials in the spring. This puts Novavax clearly better than AstraZeneca and Johnson&Johnson but slightly behind the mRNA vaccines. However, it must be taken into account that Novavax carried out the clinical trials in Great Britain and South Africa at a time when the alpha and beta variants were already widespread in the respective populations. Whether the vaccine is effective against Omicron is currently being investigated.
In my opinion, however, it cannot be assumed that the vaccine will provide perfect protection against Omicron (the effect against Beta was already significantly reduced (55.4 percent), nor can it be expected that it will not protect at all. Experts believe that the evasion of the immune system may be stronger than with mRNA vaccines, as the technology used by Novavax could only stimulate a few parts of the immune system. Therefore, work is already underway to produce adapted vaccines. Regardless of this, it is good that with Novavax a fifth vaccine is available. It is based on a different technology than the previously approved mRNA and vector vaccines.
Peter Liese on the European Commission's proposal to limit the validity of vaccination certificates
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This decision is right and long overdue / Unfortunately, vaccination protection is on the wane / Boosting is the order of the day, also because of Omikron
"This decision is right and long overdue. I will recommend my group to accept the proposal as quick as possible," said the health spokesperson of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP, Christian Democrats), Dr. med. Peter Liese, commenting on the European Commission's proposal for a delegated act, which includes limiting the validity of the Covid-19 certificate to nine months as of February.
“Unfortunately, we see that the protection of the vaccination decreases significantly after a few months. Basically, we can say that protection against Covid-19 is only really good after the third vaccination. That is why the certificate has to be adapted. I had advocated such a solution to the European Commission in advance," said the doctor and MEP.
Covid vaccines adapted against Omicron do not need an extensive new authorisation procedure
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Adapted authorisation against virus variants can take place after a few weeks / We are prepared
"If an adaptation of the vaccines is necessary due to the new virus variant Omicron, the authorisation procedure in the European Union can be completed within a few weeks. No extensive new authorisation is required. The European Parliament, the Council of Ministers and the Commission have already ensured this by amending the law in spring this year. The EU's contracts already provide for the delivery of the adapted vaccine. We are prepared." This was stated by the health policy spokesperson of the largest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats), Dr. Peter Liese, on the occasion of reports according to which the effect of the vaccines approved in the EU might not be optimal with the Omicron variant.
The vaccine manufacturers Moderna and Biontech had recently made statements to this effect. "It cannot be assumed that the vaccines against Omicron are not effective at all. Although there are numerous mutations in Omicron the predominant sequences of the spike protein are also identical to the wild type from Wuhan, so that the vaccines will still work. It therefore makes sense in any case to get vaccinated now with the approved vaccines and also to do the boosting, as the adjustment will take some time and vaccination now will protect immediately in view of the high numbers of infections. However, it may make sense to adjust the vaccines to achieve a stronger effect than without adjustment. After all, the vaccines were developed on the basis of the original Wuhan type and are already no longer as effective against Delta as they were against the original type. As this development was foreseeable, we in the European Parliament, together with the Member States, already adopted a proposal of the European Commission for an accelerated approval procedure for adapted vaccines in March this year.