The European Commission announced on Thursday 12 May its intention to accelerate Covid vaccination in Africa, with a strong funding push, and to strengthen the transatlantic partnership to vaccinate the world, ‘defeat the pandemic’ and prepare for any subsequent ones.
At the US-hosted virtual global health summit, co-chaired by Germany (Presidency of the G7), Indonesia (Presidency of the G20), Senegal (African Union Presidency) and Belize (Head of Caricom), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that an additional €400 million will soon be made available for vaccine deployment in Africa and €427 million ($450 million) for the Global Pandemic Preparedness Fund to be established, subject to an agreement being reached on its governance.
“Vaccine supply must go hand in hand with a speedy delivery, especially in Africa. The priority now is to ensure that every dose available is administered”, emphasised the Commission President.
As expected, Ursula von der Leyen and US President Joe Biden adopted a joint statement (see EUROPE 12942/28).
It reaffirms the transatlantic partnership that was launched in September 2021 for ‘Beating the Global Pandemic, Vaccinating the World, Saving Lives Now and Building Back Better’, which is the World Economic Forum motto.
For vaccine donations, the two leaders intend to put special emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa and stress the importance of good planning, in cooperation with governments, national partners, Covax, the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), WHO and the Covid-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP).
In view of available vaccine stocks, the partnership should “pay particular attention to strengthening logistics, tackling vaccine hesitancy and longer-term capacity development through the strengthening of health systems, as well as immediate vaccine absorptive capacity through the Covid-19 global partnership for vaccine delivery”, the statement said.
The two sides will also work to strengthen global supply chains and manufacturing and ”coordination to improve the global health security architecture”.
They will cooperate on the establishment of a Convention, agreement or other international instrument, currently under negotiation at WHO, on prevention, preparedness and responses to future pandemics, which will require targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations (see EUROPE 12940/19).
In addition, the US and the EU will cooperate on the establishment of a new Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for pandemic preparedness and global health security at the World Bank, including its sustainable capitalization, governance and structure. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)