Covid-19, defense, budget, violence against women ... Europe unveils its political line for the coming months

The European Union will give 200 million additional doses of Covid-19 vaccine to poor countries by mid-2022.

These donations are in addition to the 250 million doses already promised, announced this Wednesday the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

"It is an investment in solidarity and it is also an investment in global health," declared the head of the European government to the European Parliament.

She pointed out that while in the European Union more than 70% of adults are vaccinated, “less than 1% of vaccine doses have been administered in poor countries”.

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These donations are made mainly through the Covax international distribution mechanism, which is supposed to allow 92 disadvantaged states and territories to receive free vaccines funded by more prosperous nations. But the founders of this mechanism, including the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the WHO, regularly denounce the glaring inequality in access to vaccination between the populations of poor countries and rich countries, who are beginning to administer a third booster dose.

Covax has so far only been able to distribute 243 million doses in 139 underprivileged countries, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) said on September 8.

"The extent of the injustice and the level of urgency are obvious," admitted Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union Address.

The European Union (EU) is also supporting vaccine production in Africa to the tune of one billion euros.

Summit in France on European defense

On the occasion of her Annual Speech, Ursula von der Leyen also addressed other topics:

100 million for Afghanistan.

An additional 100 million euros in humanitarian aid will be provided to Afghanistan to avoid "a humanitarian disaster".

The EU had already announced the quadrupling of its humanitarian aid to reach 200 million in 2021. "We must do everything to avoid the real risk of a famine and a major humanitarian disaster," says Ursula von der Leyen.

No short-term budgetary rigor.

The EU “will not repeat the mistake” made after the last financial crisis of 2008 when a hasty return to fiscal austerity caused the continent to relapse into recession. “The lessons of the financial crisis could serve as a warning. At the time, we declared victory too early and we paid the price. We will not repeat this mistake, ”said Ursula von der Leyen, confirming the opening of a debate on the reform of European budgetary rules soon. The committee will relaunch the debate on the review of economic governance in the coming weeks. The objective is to reach a consensus on the way forward well before 2023. Planned before the pandemic, this debate on a reform of the stability pact,which limits public deficits to 3% and debt to 60% of gross domestic product (GDP), has been suspended.

Summit in France on European defense.

A defense summit will be organized by France during the French presidency of the EU in the first half of 2022, while the withdrawal from Afghanistan has revived the reflection on the autonomy of Europeans. "The time has come for Europe to move up a gear" to "defend itself against cyber attacks, act where NATO and the UN are not present and manage crises in time," explained the head of European government on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations. The creation of a European rapid reaction force of 5,000 soldiers has been under discussion for several months and the situation in Afghanistan has revived the debate by highlighting the military deficiencies of the old continent.

A law against violence against women.

The European Commission will propose a law to combat violence against women by the end of the year. “Too many women must have lived in fear during this pandemic,” says Ursula von der Leyen. "It is about effective criminal prosecution, prevention and protection measures", both online and in real life, said before the European Parliament, the head of the European executive who has the initiative legislative in the EU.