by John Chalmers
BRUSSELS, Feb 17 (Reuters) – The European Union will host more than 40 African leaders in Brussels on Thursday to reassert its influence on a continent where China and Russia have made major investments and where many felt have been forgotten by Europe during the deployment of vaccines against the coronavirus pandemic.
The EU will propose several support measures at the summit to promote health, education and security in Africa, and will commit to providing half of a new investment of 300 billion euros.
EU High Representative for External Affairs Josep Borrell said the two continents were closely linked ahead of the opening of the two-day summit, originally scheduled for 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
“Africa’s problems are our problems,” he told the European Parliament on Tuesday. “When we work to solve them, we are also working for ourselves.”
Europe and other wealthy countries have come under heavy criticism for hoarding protective equipment and later vaccines during the pandemic, with some leaders saying the slow pace of donations could lead to “vaccine apartheid”.
Travel bans imposed by several European countries after the detection of the Omicron variant by South Africa have also caused consternation.
INVESTMENTS
The European Commission announced this week that the EU and the Gates Foundation will invest more than €100 million over the next five years to help set up an African medicines regulator to boost the production of medicines and vaccines on the continent.
The race to create the African Medicines Agency comes after the pandemic exposed the region’s dependence on health.
Africa has struggled to procure COVID-19 vaccines. Deliveries then resumed, but only 10% of Africans are fully immunized.
Only a little over 5% of the drugs and 1% of the vaccines used on the continent are produced there. The EU has announced that it will help Africa produce 60% of the vaccines it needs by 2040.
Part of the funding for the African Medicines Agency will come from the 150 billion euros that will be mobilized for Africa over the next seven years under the “Global Gateway” plan.
This European plan decided last December aims to invest 300 billion euros worldwide in infrastructure, digital and climate-related projects by 2027 to compete with China’s “new silk road”. (With Philip Blenkinsop and Francesco Guarascio Brussels, Duncan Miriri and Katharine Houreld Nairobi; French version Camille Raynaud)