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.