EU’s hollow promises of global COVID-19 vaccine equity

In April 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined the need to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. Pledging to spare no effort to help the world come together against the virus, she said the vaccine must be “available at affordable prices” and “we need to produce it and deploy it to every single corner of the world.”

This briefing document outlines how, instead of “vaccinating the world," the EU is actively contributing to widening inequalities between countries capable of producing or purchasing vaccines in large quantities and others.