EU urged to aid Eastern European neighbours with vaccine supplies

The EU is now succeeding with its own vaccination drive – likely to reach 70% of its target population around the end of July. But the situation in its Eastern Partnership states is alarming, with only 6% of the population having received a dose, and Ukraine at only 4%, for example. These countries find it all too difficult to secure supplies. A major reason for this is that the EU (alongside the US) has largely pre-empted the supply capacities of Western pharmaceutical companies, way beyond their own needs.

Here, a CEPS-led group of civil society representatives of Eastern Partnership states set out their own urgent outstanding needs in detail, which are estimated to amount to around 50 million doses, a decisive amount for these countries, but very little compared to the forthcoming surpluses of the EU and its member states, which are expected to amount to between 2 and 3 billion doses.