Mr. Thierry Breton:

I would be delighted to be invited to appear again before the committee. Senator Martin raised two very important topics. The first touched me personally because I am extremely involved in Africa.

It is an important area in respect of the production of vaccines. We are not only working to produce the doses for our African partners and others, but I remind members that we have the capacity to produce over 3 billion doses by the end of the year. Hopefully, we will have a huge stock of vaccines in the second half of year. That is important.

However, it is not enough. We also need to help these countries to develop their own capacity to produce vaccines and to enable them to meet the needs of their citizens. From that perspective, last week I had a long conversation with the President of Senegal, Mr. Macky Sall, who will be President of the African Union next year. We decided to start looking into the development of a large vaccine factory, hopefully in Senegal. Senegal has a long history of developing vaccines at the Pasteur Institute of Dakar. We are working to find the right tools to do this very quickly. Of course, we all understand that it is our mission to help everyone during this pandemic and also to prepare for the next one. Unfortunately, with between 8 billion and 10 billion inhabitants on our planet, there may be, and probably will be, another pandemic. That is why we are doing this work.

The Irish Government has a very strong relationship with the US President, particularly at the moment. I understand that he likes Ireland. Perhaps it would be a good idea for the Irish Government to use its influence, which is considerable. Having lived in the US for many years, I know that the influence of the Irish Government is significant there, particularly at present. The Government could use its influence in the US to gain access to vaccine stocks. It would help us and help me in my task.

On the digital transformation, I am acutely aware of what is happening on social media. It allows me to reply to the first question asked. First, I agree that we must work together and do something with our partners around the world. Second, our December proposal highlighted that what is not accepted offline should not be allowed online either. That is extremely important. Third, social media platforms must step up their efforts. The proposed EU rules will place new obligations on these platforms. We will supervise and sanction violations. Fourth, only a European instrument will be effective in addressing the issues that have been raised.

As I stated after the events on Capitol Hill in January 2021, it should not be for private companies to take arbitrary decisions. Incidentally, the proposal that has been put on the table would have made such events impossible. I asserted as much in an op-ed. There must be a democratically validated framework which should be respected by all parties. That is what the Digital Services Act is precisely about. We have been the first to move on this issue. Obviously, I would like to be able to tell the committee that we will discuss it with our friends in the US and that discussions are already under way, but the reality is that we are ahead of the curve and leading the process. Before presenting the proposal and placing it in the hands of the co-legislators, we undertook a significant consultation exercise. It is my style of working. Some 3,000 contributions were received, with many coming from the US and other countries. It was a year after the consultation that we presented the proposal. Does that mean that we are one year ahead of the US in that respect? Probably, yes. However, we share the same values and issues. Therefore, it is a good opportunity for further co-operation.