The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Monday 29 November that “Europe aims at sharing at least 700 million doses of [Covid-19] vaccine with low- and middle-income countries” through the Covax Facility, a mechanism for equitable and universal access to vaccines, which is piloted by the WHO, GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance) and CEPI (Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness).
She was speaking via video message to the World Health Assembly in a special session lasting until 1 December (see EUROPE 12842/2). She referred to the target that had been agreed at the G20 leaders summit on 31 October to help vaccinate 70% of the world’s population (see EUROPE 12824/6) by mid-2022.
“The EU and its Member States will work very hard to achieve the global vaccination target. We know it is possible and we will do what we say”, added Ms von der Leyen.
The sharing of doses by Member States will be based on advance purchase contracts that have been already concluded.
“We are setting up agreements with manufacturers and Covax. The European Commission is playing a facilitating role. A bilateral agreement was concluded last week with Johnson & Johnson and we have several agreements with Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer”, said the European Commission health spokesperson, Stefan de Keersmaecker, on Tuesday 30 November. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)