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Die Einführung einer Grenzabgabe auf kohlenstoffintensive Importe werde "extrem kompliziert" sein, warnte Jonathan Pershing, ein Mitglied des Teams des US-Klimabeauftragten John Kerry.

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Balkans-Union européenne : comment relancer le processus d'élargissement ?
La Croatie à la tête du Conseil de l'Union européenne : quel bilan ?
L'Union européenne remet le Kosovo et la Serbie autour d'une table
« Avec ou sans l'Union européenne » : déclaration des organisations de la société civile des Balkans occidentaux

/ Courrier des Balkans, Elargissement UE, Relations régionales, Questions européennes, Albanie, Bosnie-Herzégovine, Bulgarie, Kosovo, Macédoine du Nord, Serbie, Monténégro, Blocage UE

Justus Kimeu on his farm in Kithiani village, Makueni County, Kenya. By using the regenerative agriculture (RA) technique this farmer produced a bumper maize harvest during a very dry season. Almost 900 farmers in Kenya's two dryland counties of Embu and Makueni are participating in a pilot project to see how regenerative agriculture can be used to improve food productivity. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
MAKUENI, Kenya, May 11 2021 (IPS)

It is an uncommon occurrence to see farms with flourishing healthy crops in Kenya’s semi-arid Makueni County. But in Kithiani village, Justus Kimeu’s two-acre piece of land stands out from the rest. After embracing the regenerative agriculture (RA) technique, the 52-year-old farmer is looking forward to a bumper harvest of maize as all his neighbours count their losses following this year’s failed season.

“I have been a farmer for many years, but I have never seen such a healthy crop during such a dry season,” Kimeu told IPS. “All the road users who pass by this farm can hardly go away without stopping to have a second look at a crop that has defied the prevailing tough climatic conditions.”

Kimeu is one of 900 farmers in Kenya’s two dryland counties of Embu and Makueni who are participating in a pilot project to see how RA can be used to improve food productivity.

The technique, which is being piloted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), is a dynamic and holistic way of farming that involves all the principals of permaculture and organic farming, such as minimum tillage, use of cover crops, crop rotation, terracing to reduce soil erosion, heavy mulching to keep the soils moist, use of basins to preserve soil moisture and the use of composted manure to give the topsoil the texture of a virgin fertile arable land.

“The main theory of this technique is actually to return the topsoil back to its original state,” Michael Mutua, an associate program officer in charge of RA at AGRA, told IPS. “Instead of feeding the crop, we concentrate on feeding the soil,” he said.

According the Food Sustainability Index created by Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) and the Economist Intelligence Unit, increased adoption of regenerative farm practices reduces carbon emissions during cultivation and sequesters carbon into the soil.

In a proposal of 10 interdisciplinary actions to finding ways to nourish both people and the planet post-COVID-19, one of the suggestions by BCFN was that the world develop internationally agreed-upon standards for RA practices and agroecology, as well as common definitions for healthy and sustainable food systems and food.

BCFN experts further acknowledged that regenerative and agroecological agricultural practices have the potential to boost soil health, preserve water resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

To popularise the new farming technique in Kenya, AGRA collaborated with the two county governments of Makueni and Embu, and with the Cereal Growers Association (CGA) to identify lead farmers.

The farmers were then trained on RA practices and were supported to create plots known as ‘mother demos’.

“A mother demo is actually a place for farmers’ practical lessons,” said Mutua. “It consists of four plots, where one plot is done using all the recommended RA practices, the second one using farming methods commonly used in the area, the third one is by using part of the regenerative agriculture principles, and the fourth one is the control plot, where the same crop is planted without any agronomic practice,” he explained.

Each farmer then recruited up to 100 smallholder farmers from the neighbourhood to teach them from the mother demo. Once the farmers felt confident, they returned to their own farms to set up a baby demo, which is a single plot using all the principles of AR.

“Nearly all our farmers are at the baby demo stage,” said Mutua. “But a few bold ones like Kimeu went straight to implementation without doing a small demo for the learning purpose,” he said.

According to Kimeu, the lessons at the mother demo stage were sufficient, “and doing a baby demo for him, would amount to a wasted season,” he told IPS.

“When I decided to implement this technique, my farm was bare without much vegetation. So I started by making terraces and after it rained, different weeds sprouted. Together with my household members we manually uprooted all the weeds and left them on the farm to dry and decompose before making small basins in which we were going to plant the crop,” explained the farmer.

The basins were then filled with organic manure and some topsoil. And when it rained for the second time, hybrid drought tolerant maize variety seeds were planted inside the moist basins and any weed that sprouted was manually uprooted and left to dry and rot on the farm.

“We try as much as possible to avoid tillage or any form of disturbing the soil for it to regenerate naturally to its original form,” Kimeu said, noting that he also avoided use of conventional fertilisers.

With regenerative agriculture, weeds are used to form part of the soil. Farmer Justus Kimeu produced a bumper maize harvest during a very dry season using this farming technique. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

Almost 900 farmers from the two counties are expected to graduate from the baby demo stage and implement RA during the 2021/2022 season. “If well implemented, it will more than double food security among the participating households,” said Mutua.

Bob Kisyula, the Makueni County Minister of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, told IPS: “If our smallholder farmers could embrace these techniques and produce such healthy crops, then we will never need alms and food aid even in the toughest seasons.” 

Kisyula said that the County Government also invested in rippers, which are used to ensure that there is minimum disturbance of the soil as part of the RA approach.

Today, Kimeu has become a role model and a village hero.

“In this short period, I have been approached by hundreds of farmers from my village and other places who are seeking to understand how the technique works,” he said.

 

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The head of the European Medicines Agency said Monday (10 May) that BioNTech/Pfizer's jab against Covid-19 could be approved in the EU for 12- to 15-year-olds soon, perhaps as early as this month.

Credit: UNICEF/Nahom Tesfaye

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 11 2021 (IPS)

Thanks to President Biden, the US now supports a suspension of intellectual property (IP) rights to increase vaccine supplies. However, without vaccine developers sharing tacit technical knowledge for safe vaccine mass production, it will be difficult to rapidly scale up vaccine output.

Waiver delayed is waiver denied
The CEOs of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca had recently asked the US President to reject the waiver request. Nevertheless, on 5 May, US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced US support for a vaccine waiver. The hope is that many, mainly rich countries will now stop opposing the developing country waiver proposal.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver request by South Africa and India also includes COVID-19 tests, treatments and personal protective equipment (PPE), albeit only for the duration of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) remains grossly underfunded, and thus unable to achieve most of its objectives. Many developing countries are still not even able to effectively do mass testing to ascertain those infected and follow up measures.

The developing world also faces huge supply gaps, and hence, long delays in treatment. Many ‘frontline workers’ in poor countries remain poorly protected. All this, of course, adversely compromises the world’s ability to contain the pandemic.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Foot dragging for profit
The waiver request is clearly very specific, modest and limited. Affordably producing the other non-vaccine needs is still desperately needed. Involving patents, they are immediately actionable. Hence, it is crucial for the US to support the full waiver request.

As the WTO waiver requires unanimous approval by its members, there is likely to be much foot dragging. Furthermore, even if WTO member states eventually reach a consensus on approving the waiver in principle, there is probably going to be further procrastination in negotiating details.

The WTO Director-General hopes to get a decision by December despite the likely difficulties of achieving consensus. Already, the European Union has registered doubts. Hence, many fear the new US position is unlikely to boost supply quickly.

Vaccine monopolies not yet IP dependent
Getting vaccine developers to actually share the technical information required to rapidly scale up vaccine production can be challenging. After all, no successful vaccine developer has joined the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative to share such knowledge.

There are likely to be many changes to experimental vaccines in response to new knowledge, mutations and problems. Hence, IP per se may not be the most urgent obstacle to improving access to vaccines, even without developers ‘evergreening’ patents.

Patent details must be filed within 18 months, effectively an eternity in trying to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. But patent disclosures do not contain ‘trade secrets’ and other ‘tacit’ technical knowledge essential for quickly increasing vaccine output.

Vaccine profits kill
Pfizer’s CEO now projects a steady massive revenue stream as COVID-19 becomes endemic, e.g., requiring vaccine boosters. Unless the pandemic is globally contained, it will continue to threaten the world. While reducing the likelihood of severe infection, existing vaccines do not provide full protection against infection.

Vaccine developers — especially the major pharmaceutical transnational corporations — have already been dictating prices and other terms to customers. However, as their monopoly powers are not yet reliant on patents, suspending their IP rights does not ensure urgent access to COVID-19 vaccines.

Monopolies allow companies to almost unilaterally determine prices. ‘Super-profits’ can thus be secured with patents. Despite pioneering anti-trust law over a century ago, the US — the largest producer and market for many patented products — has no laws against ‘price gouging’, implying few checks on pricing practices.

Last week, Pfizer announced that prices of vaccines sold to the European Union will increase by 60% although development of its vaccine was heavily subsidised by the German government. Earlier, it announced an increase in sales revenue of over 70%, pushing up its share price and executive remuneration.

The current vaccination delay has been projected to cause an additional 2.5 million deaths! Delays are likely to allow more virus mutations, further setting back global herd immunity. This will mean many more infections and deaths as well as economic and other losses due to the pandemic and policy responses.

TRIPS discourages knowledge sharing
Until TRIPS, there were many technology transfer agreements with developing country governments, voluntarily negotiated by companies. But since 1995, TRIPS has induced more reluctance to share knowledge, retarding technological progress.

Refusal to share technology is the biggest stumbling block to rapidly ensuring global access to vaccines. Multilateral cooperation is urgently needed, not corporate or national greed.

But not a single major company has signed up to C-TAP, the WHO initiative for knowledge sharing to address the pandemic, ignoring Dr Anthony Fauci’s appeal to them to do so.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates and others misleadingly claim that developing countries do not have the capacity or ability to produce vaccines safely. Presuming developing countries’ lack of competence and capacity, without bothering to verify, provides yet another excuse for further delay.

In fact, many developing countries have previously produced vaccines. Of course, not all will be able to produce particular vaccines due to their specific technical requirements.

Existing COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental, only receiving conditional approval for emergency use. The urgent need to mitigate the severity of pandemic infections with such vaccines, after only Phase Two trials, is also the pretext for indemnity clauses in sales contracts.

Globalisation in recent decades has involved internationalisation of supply chains, with even high-tech corporations establishing sophisticated facilities in poor developing countries. But suddenly, developing countries are all dismissed as wanting.

Accelerate vaccinations for all
Late last month, President Biden reiterated his presidential campaign pledge to share COVID-19 “technology with other countries” and to “ensure there are no patents to stand in the way of other countries and companies mass producing those life-saving vaccines”.

The Biden administration must use its discretionary powers to accelerate needed progress. Besides making clear US WTO TRIPS waiver support for tests, treatments and PPE, the US has to compel vaccine companies to share the knowledge needed to quickly scale up safe vaccine production.

The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act applies to Moderna’s vaccine, publicly funded by Operation Warp Speed. The US government can require Moderna to fully honour President Biden’s original promise to share vaccine technology. After all, Moderna has promised not to profit from the pandemic.

 

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The Conference on the Future of Europe was officially launched on 9 May with a ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

The Conference on the Future of Europe was officially launched on 9 May with a ceremony at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Selon une étude de Credit Suisse, seuls 40% des ménages avec enfants recourent aux services d’une garde institutionnelle. Les cantons romands sont toutefois parmi les moins chers.

Teljesültek a koronavírus-járvány megfékezését célzó korlátozások további jelentős enyhítéséhez szabott feltételek, így jövő hétfőn elkezdődhet a brit kormány nyitási menetrendjének következő, harmadik szakasza - jelentette be hétfőn Boris Johnson brit miniszterelnök.

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In unserer Rubrik «Jetzt mal ehrlich …» befragen wir unsere Leserinnen und Leser zu Tabuthemen. Letztes Mal wollten wir von dir wissen, wie oft du beim Geschlechtsverkehr schon gedanklich zu anderen Personen abgeschweift bist.

Like the Schuman Declaration in 1950, the Conference on the Future of Europe could pave the way for a reform of the EU, the Spinelli Group – which gathers federalist MEPs and national parliamentarians – with the Union of European...

Elfogyott a Pfizer-BioNTech-oltóanyag, emiatt megakadt az ötvenévesek oltása Olaszországban, ahol hétfőtől egyetlen tartomány sem tartozik már kiemelten járványveszélyes, úgynevezett vörös zónába.