Since a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19 is “key” to a “permanent solution” of the pandemic, today the European Commission is putting on the table of the Health Ministers of the EU member states, who will be having their regular meeting, a “EU vaccine strategy”, aimed to somehow race against time and provide enough supplies to the member states, while also taking global responsibility, in terms of access to and economic sustainability of the vaccine for everyone.

The EU Commission proposes to enter into “advance purchase agreements with several vaccine developers” through a “central process managed by the EU Commission on behalf of the member states” that will be funded by the emergency support instrument, which has received an initial budget of 2.7 billion euros. The states will make a prepayment in return for the chance to buy doses that, once available, will be bought by the member states and distributed according to the population of each country. Such strategy will enable the member states to join their economic and scientific forces, instead of creating competition among the states and leaving it to each country to decide about their vaccination policies.