Maria da Graça Carvalho sent a message to Commissioner Thierry Breton, in charge of the Internal Market, asking the EU not just to taking measures to contain or slow down the progress of COVID-19, but to go further and remove unnecessary bureaucratic barriers to faster production and development of medical equipment that can save lives.
In her message, Graça Carvalho introduces as an example the collaborative and voluntary Project “OpenAir”, working on medical devices, such as open source ventilators, to have a fast and easy solution that can be reproduced and assembled locally.
However, researchers have expressed concerns on licensing the production of such equipment by European companies and have suggested that a license for humanitarian emergency purposes would temporarily be free during the COVID-19 crisis.
To conclude, Maria da Graça Carvalho mentions that there are many other examples of similar initiatives and that some Member States are already working with the aerospace and automotive industry to develop and produce such ventilators.