Health Action International (HAI) is an independent, global network working to increase access to essential medicines and improve their rational use through research excellence and evidence-based advocacy.
In cooperation with the EU Policy Coherence for Development campaign, Health Action International Europe coordinated an expert meeting on Medicines, Access, Trade and Health, with a particular focus on the bilateral negotiations on trade agreements between the European Union and the four Andean community (CAN) countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru. The meeting was jointly hosted by MEPs Thijs Berman and Helmuth Markov.
The meeting took place on Tuesday 17th February 2009 from 10.15am to 12.15pm in the European Parliament in Brussels.
This expert meeting provided in-depth information to Members of the European Parliament who are interested in this issue and/or experts in the field of international trade, development, access to medicines and intellectual property rights. The expertise of people on the ground as well as those engaged in the negotiations was crucial for this meeting. Mr German Holguin, Director of NGO Mision Salud, spoke on behalf of the CAN countries. Also speaking was Mr Xavier Seuba, of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, the first to analyse the intellectual property rights provisions in the European Commission’s (EC) proposal.
This expert meeting is part of a broader campaign by Health Action International, the Evert Vermeer Foundation and a coalition of civil society organisations both in Europe and Latin America.
Please contact Terri Beswick to have any information on the campaign.
HAI has produced a short summary of the presentations and interventions of the meeting.
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For further information
– Health Action International Europe Website
– HAI recent publication on Health Protection in the Association Agreement between the European Union and the Andean Community
