Spain’s PM Sanchez Pushes Latin America And Caribbean To Produce Vaccines Locally

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, together with the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, presented in Brussels a ‘Team Europe Initiative’ promoted and supported by Spain on vaccine production and the resilience of health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. The initiative, in collaboration with Germany and Portugal, financial institutions and regional organisations, aims to achieve universal access to vaccines in the region by decentralising vaccine production and strengthening public health.

Sánchez reaffirmed that “The war in Ukraine shows us that not everyone shares our values and principles. Therefore, we must walk together with other regions with which we do share them, and do so hand in hand, using our commonality as a global transformative potential”.

Promoted by Spain, the project arose from the start of the dialogue between the European Commission and the regional health bodies on their own needs, and from the joint analysis of the projects already identified.

Spain, a country committed to universal access to vaccines

“Only two years ago, Europe was beginning to emerge from the first brutal confinement caused by COVID-19. But it was not only Europe that suffered: other regions of the world were hit hard by successive waves of this cruel virus. One of the hardest hit regions was Latin America and the Caribbean,” Sánchez recalled.

The Spanish government, aware of the situation, supported this region from the beginning, committed to universal access to the vaccine and pledged to donate vaccines. Since then, Spain has donated more than 21 million vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean, and overall has earmarked 182 million euros as our country’s contribution to fighting the pandemic.