London, Feb. 19, 2021 (AltAfrica)-The European Commission-EU is ready to participate in the financing of a vaccines production unit in Africa and it has chosen Morocco, a spokesperson of the EU Commission said.

The spokesperson expressed the EU’s willingness to contribute to financing the vaccines production unit and is expected to serve as a distributor of vaccines in Africa

Speaking on  conditions of anonymity, the spokesperson said  the EU Commission wants to contribute to African independence  in terms of the production of vaccines against the current dependence on foreign production

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The EU is ready to invest in the project if pharmaceutical manufacturing companies submit a clear and structured proposal that fulfills all conditions related to a satisfactory chain in Morocco, the official said.

“Discussions are ongoing on this issue between the European Union and the African Union.” the spokesperson added.

Arguing that such a structure is necessary after COVID-19, the EU official  emphasized that the European commission has strong assets to support such projects through different funds, including the European Fund for Sustainable Development.

They recalled that the European Commission has allocated €456 million  to respond and mitigate socio-economic needs in Morocco as part of its plans to address the pandemic.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has described the slow speed of Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in Africa as “intolerable”, blaming inequality between poor and rich countries for access to vaccines.

“We must respond to this outrageous inequality,” Macron said, during a videoconference on Wednesday with Egypt’s President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Congolese President President Félix Tshisekedi and Comoros President Azali Assoumani.

The goal of the meeting was to identify “priority areas” and help bring African voices to talks planned on Friday between leaders of the G7 countries, according to reports in Le Monde newspaper.

“We are at a moment of truth if we want to act more effectively,” said Macron, adding that it was in the interest of the whole world to vaccinate people globally, otherwise the virus would continue to circulate and different variants would emerge.

France’s leader highlighted a “bottleneck” in vaccine production and distribution of supplies. He said production capacities in Africa needed to be increased, while transparency on vaccine pricing was needed, pointing to how some Western countries could buy vaccines more cheaply than African countries