European Commission Raises €7.4 Billion in Pledges to Fight Covid-19

Governments from across the world, on May 4, teamed up with health organisations and partners to contribute to the worldwide pledging marathon. Photo Source: @European Commission

The European Commission has registered 7.4 billion euros from donors worldwide, during its recently held Coronavirus Global Response pledging event.

This amount raised almost reaches the initial target of 7.5 billion euros and is considered a solid starting point for the worldwide pledging marathon, which began on May 4. Through the initiative, the Commission aims to gather significant funding to ensure the collaborative development and universal deployment of diagnostics, treatments and vaccines against the Covid-19 virus.

“With such commitment, we are on track for developing, producing and deploying a vaccine for all. However, this is only the beginning. We need to sustain the effort and to stand ready to contribute more. The pledging marathon will continue. Governments, civil society and people worldwide need to join in, in a global mobilisation of hope and resolve,” President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said.

The Commission will soon announce the breakdown of the amount raised and how much will go to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and health systems strengthening related to the coronavirus.

An ongoing pledging marathon

The initiative is a response to the call from the World Health Organization (WHO) and a group of health actors for a global collaboration for the accelerated development, production and equitable global access to new coronavirus essential health technologies.

The Coronavirus Global Response Initiative is based on the three priorities: testing, treating and preventing.

To help reach the objectives of the Coronavirus Global Response, the European Commission is committing 1 billion euros in grants and 400 million euros in guarantees on loans through reprioritisation of Horizon 2020 (1 billion euros), RescEU (80 million euros), the Emergency Support Instrument (150 million euros) and external instruments (170 million euros).

In addition, 100 million euros will be donated to CEPI and 158 million euros to the World Health Organization.

Photo Source: @European Commission

Donors are invited to continue pledging to the Coronavirus Global Response. They can choose which priority to donate to – Test, Treat or Prevent. They can also donate to the horizontal work stream of the Coronavirus Global Response, aiming to help health systems in the world cope with the pandemic.

Moreover, according to the Commssion, the Global Vaccines Summit that Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, will organise on June 4, is expected to mobilise additional funding to protect the next generation with vaccines.

For more information on the Coronavirus Global Response press here.