MARSEILLE－The European Union stood by its refusal on Monday to lift patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines, just days ahead of a summit with African Union countries that see the issue as a priority.

Since October 2020, India and South Africa have led calls at the World Trade Organization for the temporary removal of intellectual property protections for vaccines, treatments, and diagnostics in the fight against COVID-19.

Proponents argue that this would boost production globally and help address the glaring inequity in access between rich and poor nations.

Members of the African Union have pushed to include this demand in the conclusion of the joint EU-AU summit that starts on Thursday in Brussels.

"The African Union … urges the European Union to engage constructively toward the conclusion of a targeted and time-limited waiver," said the AU proposal.

But a number of wealthy countries hosting large pharmaceutical companies have opposed the move, saying patents are crucial to innovation and not the main roadblocks to scaling up production.

"We think that intellectual property should never be a brake (to vaccine production)," said Franck Riester, trade minister of France, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"At the same time, we do not want to call into question a system of intellectual property that allows for innovation and that has made it possible, in particular, to have vaccines very quickly in the case of COVID-19."

Riester made the comments after holding talks with his EU counterparts on the matter in the French city of Marseille in which WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala also took part.

Okonjo-Iweala said in January that a WTO deal on easing restrictions to manufacture vaccines was weeks away. But on Monday, ministers said they hoped for a WTO accord no earlier than June.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland's deputy prime minister, said it is "very important that we're willing to make compromises and that we're willing to make sure that vaccines are available in all parts of the world".

Agencies via Xinhua