EU moves to boost pandemic preparedness, counter Chinese investments

A new authority to prevent health emergencies, another 200 million vaccine doses for needy countries, and a “Global Gateway” initiative to rival China’s Belt and Road were among the major announcements Wednesday from the president of the European Union executive body.

Giving her annual State of the Union speech in Strasbourg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said her first and most urgent priority was speeding up global vaccination efforts.

To that end, she announced that another 200 million COVID-19 vaccine doses would be shared by the middle of next year — on top of the 250 million she said had already been committed. However, the process has been painfully slow. By Sept. 1, just 18 million doses had been shared by Team Europe, which is composed of the commission and EU member states.

Emily Wigens, EU director at ONE Campaign, welcomed the additional 200 million dose pledge but added in a statement that “out of the estimated 1.8 billion excess doses the EU has reserved, it’s a drop in the ocean.”

Eloise Todd, co-founder of the Pandemic Action Network, an advocacy group, told Devex that the main issue remains speedy distribution of donated doses. Apart from countries donating vaccines they already have, Todd also seconded the recent call from GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, for those with pending orders they do not need to allow COVAX, the global vaccine sharing initiative to take their place in the queue in order to get more doses to underserved countries quicker.

Regarding future health threats, von der Leyen also announced a new health preparedness and resilience mission for the EU, to be backed, she said, “by Team Europe investment of €50 billion [$59.1 billion] by 2027.”

Details of a so-called Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, or HERA, had leaked before the speech, with Euractiv reporting the new body would be housed inside the commission, and work on both steering investments in preparing for public health emergencies as well as coordinating responses to crises.

A commission spokesperson could not immediately say where the €50 billion would come from, with more details set to be released Thursday.

The initiative is “sensible” but could face challenges trying to get all member states to cooperate, Adam Kamradt-Scott, professor and chair of Global Public Health under European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance, told Devex by email.

“There is also a danger the creation of an agency dedicated to meeting the needs of the EU during a health crisis might also inadvertently create additional global supply shortages for other countries,” he said, noting that “it will be critical that in creating HERA the EU doesn’t exacerbate the challenges the international community already confronts.”

Alongside an additional €4 billion for climate finance efforts until 2027, and €100 million in further humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, von der Leyen also floated what she described as a new “connectivity strategy,” dubbed “Global Gateway.”

She said this would involve “investments in quality infrastructure, connecting goods, people, and services around the world,” with an emphasis on creating “links and not dependencies.”

The commission will also propose a ban on products in the EU market made by forced labor, she added.

And in case the allusion to Beijing was not clear enough, von der Leyen said: “We are good at financing roads. But it does not make sense for Europe to build a perfect road between a Chinese-owned copper mine and a Chinese-owned harbor.”

She said her vision required a Team Europe approach, connecting “institutions and investment, banks and the business community,” starting with the long-delayed EU-Africa summit, now slated for February.

Niels Keijzer, a senior researcher from the German Development Institute, told Devex that the Team Europe concept, which grew out of the pandemic, is predicated on greater collaboration between the commission and member states. “But whether such teamwork will actually occur,” Keijzer noted, “depends on whether sufficient member states will support it.”