Coordinamento sanitario interno e strategia globale per i vaccini: A che punto siamo in Europa?

After a slow-moving start, vaccination campaigns in European countries are now proceeding smoothly and the progress made on the immunization front is important and visible. As the situation improves, two questions arise more and more urgently. The first: how to achieve closer health coordination among the member states of the European Union (EU) in the future, thus strengthening intra-European solidarity, to counter future emergencies in a coherent manner and prevent their onset? The second: how to ensure immunization against Covid-19 in the rest of the world?

At present, the vast majority of vaccines have been administered in a small number of rich countries. In light of global interconnections and the spread of new variants, a vaccination strategy linked to a single country or to a block of states will not be successful in the medium to long term. Therefore, the EU needs to adopt a global vaccination strategy that looks first and foremost to those countries with which it has or aspires to have important cooperation relationships within the framework of its foreign policy.

In this context, the Webinar aimed to take stock of what the EU is doing in terms of internal health coordination, on the one hand, and the development of a global strategy for vaccines, on the other. More generally, it discussed how to ensure that European foreign policy addresses health issues and the current pandemic emergency with a holistic approach that takes into account the objectives of development cooperation, sustainability and management of resources, economic cooperation and the revamping of multilateralism. The Webinar was also focused on Italy’s contribution in this important domain in the framework of the Italian Presidency of the G20 and the Global Health Summit of 21 May, co-organized by Italy and the European Commission.

"This event benefits from the financial contribution of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation and of the Policy Planning Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation pursuant to art. 23-bis of Presidential Decree 18/1967. The positions expressed are exclusively those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the positions of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation."