Brussels – Today, EU leaders at the Global Held summit organised by the G20 Presidency and the European Commission pledged a strong package of announcements to get the world closer to end this pandemic.

Jenny Ottenhoff, senior policy director at the ONE Campaign, said:

“We have seen some important new commitments today that show the world is waking up to the scale of this truly global crisis. These can be seen as a good start, but 18 months into this global pandemic a good start is not good enough. We have the tools to end the pandemic in months rather than years – but there is still a massive gap between commitments made and what is really needed to get these tools everywhere. World leaders must now deliver at next month’s COVAX Summit and the G7 leaders’ summit – and build the strong and united front needed to end the pandemic once and for all.”

Emily Wigens, EU Director at The ONE Campaign, added: 

“The EU and several Member States presented a solid package of commitments today, deploying some of the key tools in their arsenals to help end the pandemic and respond better to the next one. But we’re still playing catch up on a global response to the crisis.

The European Council meeting next week is a key opportunity to make good on President von der Leyen’s claim to be the pharmacy of the world. We need to see leaders build on today’s commitments on dose-sharing, pledging to share all excess doses by the end of the year, as well supporting a temporary TRIPS waiver at the WTO. We need leaders to use every tool in the toolbox to defeat this pandemic, which means moving swiftly on both short and long-term solutions.”