December 2010

Access to quality medicines and healthcare

"Africa is a giant in the making", Jacques Chirac at the European Development Days,

December 2010

A year after the Cotonou Declaration against falsified medicines, launed October 12, 2009 by President Jacques Chirac and several heads of state, the Fondation Chirac organized with Louis Michel, State Minister and European Deputy, a conference on the role of the European Union in the fight against fake medicines.

Taking place on Tuesday 7th December 2010, during the Fifth European Development Days, the conference, opened by Louis Michel, the President Thomas Boni Yayi and Mo Ibrahim, was composed of three round tables on the following topics:

- the current state of governance in health and access to quality medicines ;

- needs analysis and priority field efforts; and

- the legal and structural developments needed to prevent the production and trafficking of falsified medicines.

In his speech delivered at the closing ceremony of the European Development Days, the President Jacques Chirac reminded us that the biggest challenges our societies must overcome cannot be achieved without integrating the countries from the African continent. « [Africa’s] development is a prerequisite for sustainable development for all », he insisted. Without the rise of the « African Lions of the 21st century » (…) « Globalization cannot succceed », according to Jacques Chirac. Find the videos, speeches and photos of the conference: http://www.fondationchirac.eu/en/without-africa-there-can-be-no-solution-jacques-chirac/