Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 are the best way out of the pandemic. The Commission and Member States have taken a common EU approach to securing supplies and facilitating their distribution.

Through Advance Purchase Agreements with individual vaccine producers, the Commission secured the right to buy a specified number of vaccine doses in a given timeframe and at a given price. In return, the Commission financed a part of the upfront costs from the €2.7 billion Emergency Support Instrument. This funding was considered a down-payment on the vaccines that Member States purchase.

On 17 June 2020, the European Commission presented the EU Vaccines Strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and deployment of vaccines against COVID-19.

With the vaccines strategy, the Commission supported efforts to make the process more efficient, resulting in this timeframe being reduced to less than one year for most vaccines.

The objectives of the EU Vaccines Strategy are:

• to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of vaccines
• to secure timely access to vaccines for Member States and their population while leading the global solidarity effort
• to ensure equitable and affordable access for all in the EU to an affordable vaccine as early as possible
• to make sure that preparations are made in EU countries regarding the roll-out of safe and effective vaccines, addressing transportation and deployment needs, and identifying priority groups 

The vaccine strategy should act as a reference point for Member States when formulating their national vaccination strategies.

Safe and effective vaccines started to be distributed in the EU by the end of 2020, following strict authorisation procedures and the highest safety standards.

To date, five safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 have been authorised by the Commission for use in the EU following positive scientific recommendations by the European Medicines Agency

Vaccines still in development

On 1 September 2022, based on the recommendation of the European Medicines Agency, the Commission authorised the adapted omicron vaccines from BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna in the EU.

Measures that should be taken in view of new and adapted COVID-19 vaccines becoming available include:

• Developing national vaccination strategies clarifying which vaccines, including the new and adapted vaccines, should be administered to which population groups in view of the possible emergence of new variants. This should be based on the guidance which his to be issued shortly by the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.  

Ensuring sufficient logistical capacity to administer the vaccines as soon as new and adapted vaccines are delivered.

Exploratory talks are intended to result in an Advance Purchase Agreement to be financed through the Emergency Support Instrument, which has funds dedicated to the creation of a portfolio of potential vaccines produced by different companies.

Companies with a promising vaccine candidate, already in or close to starting clinical trials, are invited to contact the Commission at EC-VACCINES@ec.europa.eu

COVID-19 vaccine tracker

On 15 October 2020, the European Commission published a Communication on preparedness for COVID-19 vaccination that included key elements to be considered for national vaccination strategies.

In the beginning, the focus was on decreasing the rate of fatalities and the burden on essential services. Consideration was given to priority groups such as the elderly, healthcare workers and persons whose state of health means they are particularly at risk.

On 19 January 2021, the European Commission adopted a Communication calling on Member States to speed up the rollout of vaccines across the EU.

By mid-July, Europe had enough vaccine doses to vaccinate 70% of the EU adult population.

Vaccination progress in Europe can be followed at the website of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Ramping up industrial vaccine production in the EU

On 4 February 2021, the European Commission set up a Task Force under the authority of the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, in cooperation with the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides. The Task Force aims to ramp up production capacity for vaccines in the EU, acting as a one-stop-shop for manufacturers in need of support, and to identify and address bottlenecks in production capacity and supply chains.

The regular contacts of the Task Force with industry and Member States allow the Commission to have a good understanding of vaccine production capacities in the EU. The Task Force is also regularly updating a mapping of vaccine production capacities in the EU, including the related EU supply chain.

The mapping exercise is based on data gained through the Task Force activities, from the Commission-organised matchmaking event in March 2021 with companies that have consented to have their name made public, publicly available information and on information shared by Member States. This data will be complemented and updated as further information becomes available.

The Task Force categorised the companies based on their main area of activity, thus companies can have more capacities that may not be reflected in the map. The data in the mapping exercise is aggregated in five main categories for visualisation purposes as follows:

• Supply (production/supply of raw materials, consumables, disposables, equipment)
• Production (manufacturing and formulation, CDMO/CMO)
• Fill & Finish, Packaging
• Storage & Shipment
• Other (process development of vaccines, CROs, R&D, clinical trial management services)

On 12 July 2021, the Task Force organised a second matchmaking event, this time on COVID-19 therapeutics, to foster industrial collaborations to accelerate the development and production of new or repurposed medicines to treat COVID-19.

On 29 January 2021, the European Commission put a measure in place requiring COVID-19 vaccine exports to be authorised by Member States. This is to ensure timely access to vaccines for all EU citizens and transparency of vaccine exports outside the EU.

However, the EU will not extend the COVID-19 vaccines export transparency and authorisation mechanism, which expires on 31 December 2021.  As of 1 January 2022, this mechanism will be replaced by a new monitoring tool, which will mean vaccine producers no longer have to request an authorisation for the export of vaccines outside the EU. Transparency of exports will continue to be ensured through this new tool, providing the Commission with timely, company-specific export data.

The Commission has invested large amounts of funding in the development of the production capacity of vaccine developers in the EU, and continues to monitor the epidemiological situation in order to adopt appropriate measures if necessary.

On 18 September 2020, the European Commission confirmed its participation in the COVAX Facility for equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines.

COVAX’s global supply forecast

COVAX is part of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. 

On 12 November 2020, the European Union announced it will contribute an additional €100 million in grant funding to support the COVAX Facility to secure access to the future COVID-19 vaccine in low and middle-income countries. The funds will complement the €400 million in guarantees the EU already committed for COVAX, making the Union one of the leading donors.

On 19 February 2021, the President of the European Commission announced an additional €500 million for the COVAX Facility. The new package consists of a €300 million EU grant and €200 million in guarantees by the European Fund for Sustainable Development plus (EFSD+) that will back a loan by the European Investment Bank. 

With this new contribution, the EU is further stepping up investment in support of the global recovery with a total of €1 billion. Team Europe (EU and Member States) are a lead contributor to the COVAX Facility with close to €3 billion pledged to date.

ACT brings together governments, scientists, businesses, civil society, philanthropists and global health organizations such as

• the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
• CEPI
• FIND
• Gavi
• The Global Fund
• Unitaid
• Wellcome
• the WHO
• the World Bank
• Global Financing Facility

In its Communication of 19 January 2021, the Commission announced that it will set up an EU vaccine sharing mechanism to structure the provision of vaccines shared by Member States with partner countries through a Team Europe approach, paying special attention to the Western Balkans, the Eastern and Southern neighbourhood, and Africa.

On 21 May 2021, at the G20 Global Health Summit in Rome, the President announced a Team Europe initiative on manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa. The initiative will help create an enabling environment for local manufacturing in Africa and tackle barriers on both supply and demand sides. It will be backed by €1 billion from the EU budget and the European development finance institutions such as the European Investment Bank (EIB). This amount will be further enhanced by contributions from EU Member States.

On 22 July 2021, the President announced the firm commitment that Team Europe will deliver at least 200 million doses to low and middle-income countries by the end of the year. A majority of these doses will be delivered through COVAX.

On 11 October 2021, the European Commission proposed to amend the EU Budget for 2021. It will provide an additional €450 million to reach the €1.3 billion which are needed to secure an additional 200 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 for low and middle-income countries through COVAX, as announced by President von der Leyen in her State of the Union speech. 

On 29 November 2021, on the occasion of the second-ever special session of the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization, the President of the European Commission confirmed that the EU aims to share at least 700 million vaccine doses by mid-2022 with low and middle-income countries. This comes on top of the €3 billion in financing already provided to help create the ACT-Accelerator.

Redacted Framework Contracts for Supplies

Redacted Advance Purchase Agreements

Legislative documents

Factsheets

Public opinion on COVID-19 vaccination