Global solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic
The European Union's action against COVID-19 does not stop at its borders. As Team Europe, the EU and its member states are actively contributing to a wider global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU is the world's biggest donor and exporter of vaccines in the world.
The EU is assisting partner countries globally with vaccine donations and exports, as well as financial and humanitarian support for countries in need. Acting together, guided by the principles of solidarity and multilateralism, EU countries have provided support to partners around the world and secured significant funding to counteract the pandemic's disruptive consequences on a global scale.
On this page you will find more information on:
- Team Europe's global response
- vaccine donations
- the EU's contribution to COVAX
- vaccine exports
- humanitarian support to partner countries
- EU solidarity in the G7 and the G20
- Coronavirus Global Response
A global objective
of the global population to be vaccinated by mid-2022
This pandemic is global. We won’t be safe until everyone is safe. Thus we have reaffirmed our solidarity with third countries — through COVAX and the sharing of vaccines with our neighbourhood, and beyond.
Charles Michel, President of the European Council
Vaccine donations
COVID-19 vaccine doses to be donated by mid-2022
During the General Affairs Council meeting on 25 January 2022, the Council reiterated the European Union’s desire to step up its support for those countries most in need, in particular in Africa:
- by continuing to provide European support to COVAX
- on a bilateral basis, in cooperation with partners
By February 2022, member states have shared a total of over 407 million doses, mainly via COVAX (86%). Of these, over 319 million doses donations have already been delivered:
doses delivered
During the European Council meeting on 24-25 May 2021, EU leaders reaffirmed that the EU and its member states are committed to accelerating vaccine sharing to support countries in need, with the aim of donating at least 100 million doses by the end of 2021, and to helping to develop local manufacturing capacity worldwide.
The target was raised to 250 million doses. The EU has further committed donating 700 million doses by mid-2022 to support its goal of getting 70% of the global population vaccinated.
The EU vaccine-sharing mechanism, through which member states can donate some of the doses secured under the EU’s vaccine strategy to partner countries, has already allowed over 45.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to reach recipient countries through bilateral donations.
Of these, 26 million doses that were shared through the EU civil protection mechanism with 37 countries around the world, with special attention being given to the countries in need in the Western Balkans, the eastern and southern neighbourhood and Africa. Another 8 million doses were shared by the end of 2021.
COVAX: ensuring global, equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines
Team Europe contribution to COVAX
As part of the effort to assist poorer countries across the globe, the EU also contributed to COVAX, the global initiative to ensure equitable and fair access to safe and effective vaccines.
Infographic - COVID-19: the EU's contribution to global vaccine solidarity
See full infographic
By December 2020, the European Union had contributed €500 million to COVAX. At the beginning of 2021, an additional €500 million was allocated, bringing the European Union's donation to COVAX to a total of €1 billion.
Together with donations from EU countries, the total Team Europe contribution to COVAX is of over €3 billion to date (February 2022).
Through this contribution, the EU aims to facilitate access to the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of income, for millions of people across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and in Europe's eastern and southern neighbourhood.
The aim for COVAX was to deliver 1.3 billion doses to the most vulnerable populations in 92 low and middle-income countries by the end of 2021. Ghana was the first country to receive COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX scheme at the end of February 2021.
- COVAX facility website
- Commission sets out key actions for a united front to beat COVID-19 (European Commission press release, 19 January 2021)
Vaccine exports
The EU is one of the main producers of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide and the global leader in vaccine exports.
Production of COVID-19 vaccines in the EU was scaled up during 2021 to respond to demand from EU countries and from partners around the globe. The vaccine production capacity within the EU grew from 24 million doses a month in January 2021 to about 300 million a month in August 2021.
vaccine doses
Of the approximately 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses produced in its territory, the EU has exported over 1.8 billion doses to more than 165 countries around the world. The top 5 export destinations in 2021 were Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam.
Team Europe
Confronted with the unprecedented global crisis and in line with its responsibilities as a global player, the European Union launched its 'Team Europe' initiative on 8 April 2020.
The initial budget mobilised - €20 billion - grew to a total of €46 billion. This combines resources from the EU, its member states and financial institutions, in particular the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
mobilised by Team Europe to support partner countries in emergency
The objective of Team Europe is to coordinate support to partner countries in the emergency response to humanitarian needs linked to the pandemic. Strengthening the preparedness and response capacities of countries with fragile healthcare systems and providing critical medical supplies and equipment has been shown to be a successful approach in recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika.
Specifically, Team Europe's support is focused on:
- the emergency response to humanitarian needs
- strengthening health, water and sanitation systems
- mitigating the social and economic consequences of the pandemic
In 2020, Team Europe had already supported over 130 partner countries around the world with over €26 billion.
By April 2021, that amount had increased to €34 billion, equal to 74% of the total €46 billion committed.
By February 2022, Team Europe has given financial support of 46 billion to help 130 countries for COVID-19 response and recovery. Almost a quarter of that - €10 billion - has gone to Africa.
As part of Team Europe's global response the EU boosted investment in Africa and the EU neighbourhood with at least €1 billion from the EU budget, (829 million already mobilised) by concluding ten financial guarantee agreements with partner financial institutions. Signed in November 2020, these guarantees complement the funds provided by the European Fund for Sustainable Development and are expected to generate up to €10 billion in overall investment.
Team Europe is Africa's biggest donor of COVID-19 vaccines. Of the 407 million doses shared by February 2022 around 180 million doses benefit Africa. 145 million doses have been delivered already. The aim is to reach a total of 450 million doses with African countries by the summer 2022.
doses delivered
Team Europe has already committed €300 million to accelerate the vaccination pace in particular where vaccination rates are lowest. In addition, on 9 February the European Commission announced a further €125 million in funding for African countries. This will help to fund the efficient distribution of doses and the training of medical teams but also to reinforce analysis and sequencing capacity, to help stay one step ahead of the virus.
The European Union also supported the health systems of EU partners in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), announcing a new €20 million Team Europe programme in December 2020.
Team Europe also supports the production of mRNA vaccines in Africa, a crucial technology in the fight against COVID-19.
- Team Europe: stronger together against COVID-19 (European External Action Service)
- EU global response to COVID-19 (European Commission)
Infographic - COVID-19: EU support to the Western Balkans
See full infographic
Team Europe support for the Western Balkans
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the EU and EU countries have been supplying partners in the Western Balkan with:
- medical equipment
- health and emergency assistance
- vaccine doses
- financial support
The EU is the number one investor and trading partner in the Western Balkans region. Together with the European Investment Bank, the EU mobilised over €3.3 billion to help the Western Balkans deal with the health crisis, support businesses and public sector investment and kickstart the economic and social recovery.
Supporting healthcare systems and the response to the pandemic in partner countries
EU humanitarian air bridge
Effective coordination also means making the best use of available resources, and this is all the more essential in times of multiple challenges. As part of the Team Europe approach, the EU set up a temporary EU humanitarian air bridge to facilitate the delivery of essential medical supplies and the movement of aid workers internationally.
This service allocated €10 million to help reach and assist the areas most seriously affected by air transport constraints in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas.
The air bridge is at the service of humanitarian actors. Its implementation is a joint effort by a number of actors: the European Commission, EU member states, the national authorities of the destination countries, civil society, humanitarian NGOs and United Nations agencies.
Thanks to the air bridge, UNICEF, one of the EU’s implementing partners on humanitarian projects in Africa, was able to deliver vital supplies for its humanitarian projects on the outbound leg of repatriation flights from Denmark to Mali and from Belgium to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both flights were co-financed under the EU civil protection mechanism.
Solidarity with non-EU countries and humanitarian aid operations
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the poorest countries in the world particularly hard, aggravating their humanitarian needs even further. To respond to this challenge, the EU has boosted its humanitarian support to non-EU countries, in several ways.
International solidarity is not just a matter of staying true to our values. It is also about making sure that we win the fight against the virus together. Unless the virus is defeated everywhere, it is not defeated. A global pandemic can only be solved globally, with united, swift and decisive global action.
Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
The EU was among the very first to respond to the World Health Organization’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan at the beginning of 2020, committing to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable people, and ensuring that humanitarian actors continue to carry out their life-saving work across the world.
Team Europe's humanitarian effort amounts to €655 million since the beginning of the pandemic, of which €203 million was used in 2021.
Examples of humanitarian actions undertaken:
- supporting the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in 34 African countries
- identifying vulnerable refugees in East Africa (for example in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) who should be prioritised for vaccination, along with community engagement and awareness raising
Having contributed $25 million, Team Europe is the leading donor to the 'humanitarian buffer' under COVAX. This instrument funds vaccination efforts geared towards people excluded from national vaccination plans, such as people living in conflict areas or areas controlled by non-state armed groups, IDPs and refugees.
Among other things, the programme is supporting:
- the delivery of 1.6 million doses to Iran to cover Afghan refugees
- a planned delivery of 720 000 doses to Thailand in December 2021 to vaccinate Rohingya people
Global support through the EU civil protection mechanism
Infographic - The EU civil protection mechanism in numbers
See full infographic
Support for non-EU countries in need is also provided by the EU civil protection mechanism, through which the EU is helping to coordinate and finance the delivery of:
- medical assistance and equipment, such as protective facemasks, gowns, gloves, goggles, overalls, disinfectant and other products
- COVID-19 vaccines
For example, in June 2020, emergency medical teams from Italy and Germany were sent to Armenia to provide medical assistance. In August 2020, the EU coordinated the deployment of another Italian emergency medical team to support local health authorities in Azerbaijan. The team was made up of 6 medical experts who spent 2 weeks helping with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Under the EU civil protection mechanism, the EU coordinates the delivery of assistance and finances up to 75% of the related transport costs.
Other financial support
Further financial support to non-EU countries has been allocated through other funds to areas of the world with specific needs, such as the Western Balkans and Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, the southern Africa region, the Horn of Africa, Ecuador and El Salvador, south and south-east Asia.
In this framework, the EU is:
- re-orientating support to national governments via direct budget support and financing
- providing access to loans and guarantees
- supporting the private sector through loan guarantees, technical assistance and increased access to liquidity support, working capital and trade finance
EU neighbouring partners have received €3 billion in specific COVID-19-related financial assistance.
This is provided in the form of loans on favourable terms and allocated as follows:
- Albania: €180 million
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: €250 million
- Georgia: €150 million
- Jordan: €200 million
- Kosovo*: €100 million
- Moldova: €100 million
- Montenegro: €60 million
- Republic of North Macedonia: €160 million
- Tunisia: €600 million
- Ukraine: €1.2 billion
*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
EU solidarity in the G7 and the G20
COVID-19 has shown that the world needs stronger defences against future risks to global health security. The EU has identified the G7 and G20 summits as key arenas for building up these much needed defences.
The EU has declared its commitment to collaborating with the leaders of the G7, the G20 and WHO to beat COVID-19 and build back better and greener. In this respect, 2021 was a turning point for multilateralism and for the shaping of a recovery that promotes the health and prosperity of people and the planet.
As the G7 and G20 are capable of advancing the dialogue on ongoing critical issues, the EU is expected to seize the opportunity to boost the recovery and preparedness plan to overcome COVID-19 in unity.
The G20 Global Health Summit in Rome in May 2021 was a key moment for bolstering global health and the health security architecture for pandemic preparedness, including exploring an international treaty on pandemics. The G20 leaders adopted the Rome Declaration, committing to applying common principles to overcome COVID-19 and to preventing and preparing for future pandemics. They reaffirmed their support to global solidarity, equity and multilateral cooperation, and they committed to promoting sustainable financing in global health.
At the G7 in Cornwall (UK) on 11-13 June 2021, global leaders set a collective goal of ending the pandemic in 2022. The G7 committed to providing one billion vaccine doses over the next year.
Infographic - Towards an international treaty on pandemics
See full infographic
An international agreement to fight pandemics globally
The 194 members of the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed in December 2021 to start the process of drafting and negotiating a convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Such an instrument would enable countries around the globe to strengthen national, regional and global capacities and resilience to future pandemics.
The proposal for an international treaty on pandemics was first announced by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at the Paris Peace Forum in November 2020.
Coronavirus Global Response
Regarding vaccination, the EU also championed the Coronavirus Global Response initiative early on. This is the global action for universal access to affordable coronavirus vaccination, treatment and testing. It is the EU's response to a global call for action against the pandemic, which was launched by the World Health Organization with governments and partners on 24 April 2020.
To raise funds for it, the European Union and its partners organised a worldwide pledging marathon. A total of €15.9 billion was pledged between April and June 2020.
The Coronavirus Global Response also aims to strengthen health systems in partner countries and support economic recovery in the world's most fragile and vulnerable countries, regions and communities, so as to leave no one behind.