European Foreign Affairs Review
Volume 29, Issue 1 (2024) pp. 35 – 66

https://doi.org/10.54648/eerr2024003

Abstract

COVID-19 has posed a serious challenge for the European Union (EU) since 2020. The EU has adopted vaccine diplomacy, among other measures, to tackle this global pandemic. The EU also applied the Advance Purchase Agreements (APA) and export control for the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021, and did not fully support a waiver for vaccine and medicine Intellectual Property (IP) in the 2022 WTO negotiation. This paper focuses primarily on the following core issues and questions: What is the concept of vaccine diplomacy? What are the theories, policy decisions, jurisprudence and practices of the EU’s vaccine diplomacy? What is the strategy of the EU for cooperating with the WHO and the Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator (COVAX)?What is the significance, and implications of EU vaccine diplomacy? The EU firmly supports WHO multilateralism and the COVAX framework for vaccine distribution and health cooperation. The EU also actively participates in WHO negotiations for a new health treaty, to respond effectively to future pandemics. This paper also suggests some ways to resolve the problem about how the EU can become a contracting party to the new WHO health treaty. Despite the fact that some policies such as the APA, vaccine export control and IP waiver were criticized by some other countries, the EU’s vaccine diplomacy in the WHO is largely a great success. The EU vaccine diplomacy is expected to increase the EU’s soft power and normative influence in the WHO, and contribute greatly to the health of European citizens, other human beings and a new emerging international health order.

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