Image: Images Money [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr
EU contributes another €5.4 billion to global effort
An EU-led effort to make Covid-19 treatments and vaccines widely affordable worldwide has raised another €6.15 billion, of which €5.4bn came from within the EU.
The money builds on previous pledges to the Coronavirus Global Response initiative launched in May, bringing the total raised to €15.9bn.
The EU directly contributed an additional €4.9bn on 27 June, via the European Commission and European Investment Bank, with EU member states putting in a further €485 million.
“The EIB remains fully engaged in efforts alongside Team Europe, to minimise the devastating impact of this pandemic, notably by providing financing for health systems and research and economic resilience across the globe,” said its president Werner Hoyer.
Participants in the initiative, including countries and private philanthropic groups, aim to raise Covid-19 vaccine production capacity to more than 250 million vaccine doses for middle and lower income countries.
“The world will only be freed from this pandemic when vaccines, tests and treatments are available and affordable to everyone who needs them,” said Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
She urged countries not to stockpile a Covid-19 vaccine for themselves at the expense of poorer nations.
“I am a firm believer in vaccine multilateralism,” she said. “To think that you can beat this virus by vaccinating only your own people while neglecting the others, is just plain wrong.”