On 16th April 2018, 35 civil society groups wrote a letter to the European Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmström, expressing concerns over the European Commission’s plans to create an EU Watch List.

The letter states that “despite the European Union’s public pledge of support for third countries’ right to use the flexibilities of the TRIPS Agreement and the support of an indefinite exemption for least-developed countries on implementing WTO intellectual property rules for  pharmaceuticals, the EU Watch-List will chill third countries’ efforts to protect public health and to promote access to medicines as reaffirmed by the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.” and calls to the European Commission to review its plans.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

Co-signatories to the letter are:

Access to Medicines Ireland
AIDS Access Foundation, Thailand
Alianza LAC – Global por el Acceso a Medicamentos, Regional
All India Drug Action Network (india)
Associação Brasileira Interdisciplinar de AIDS (ABIA), Brazil
BioThai, Thailand
BUKO Pharma-Kampagne
Commons Network
Drug Study Group, Thailand
Foundation for AIDS Rights, Thailand
Foundation for Consumers, Thailand
FTA Watch, Thailand
Fundación Grupo Efecto Positivo (FGEP), Argentina
Fundación IFARMA, Colombia
Health Action International (HAI)
Health and Trade Network
Health GAP (Global Access Project)
Initiative for Health and Equity in Society (india)
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition Latin American and Caribbean ITPC-LATCA
Just Treatment
Knowledge Ecology International Europe (KEI Europe)
Médecins du Monde
Misión Salud, Colombia
ONG Políticas Farmacéuticas (Chile)
Oxfam
People’s Health Systems Movement, Thailand
Prayas Centre for Health Equity (India)
Red Latinoamericana por el Acceso a Medicamentos, RedLAM
Salud por Derecho
Stop Drink Network, Thailand
STOPAIDS
Sustainable Agriculture Network, Thailand
Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+), Thailand
The All-Ukrainian Network PLWHA
UAEM Europe