EU Commission increases assistance package for Eastern Partnership countries from €40 mln to €75 mln

The EU Commission has increased the assistance package for six Eastern Partnership countries from €40 million to €75 million in order to ‘deploy safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines and speed up the vaccination campaigns.’

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine will receive the additional €35 million as a part of the assistance package ‘to substantially increase access to vaccines in the Eastern Partnership region amid the global vaccine shortage.’

This assistance complements the EU's support to the Covax initiative, the world's facility to ensure fair and universal access to Covid-19 vaccines and work towards an equitable and transparent distribution of vaccines over the Eastern Partner countries,” says the statement. 

EU Commission announced that €35 million ‘comes in addition to the first package of support worth €40 million, launched in February,’ which aimed to ‘strengthen preparedness and local readiness for safe and effective vaccination of the population’ in six Eastern Partnership countries.

The statement also reads that the EU support includes the training of health managers and medical staff who are involved in the vaccination campaign. 

European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi visited Georgia in early July and stated that ‘the EU stands by Georgia.’