The European Commission and the World Health Organisation will co-host a Global Vaccination Summit on 12 September 2019 in Brussels, Belgium.

The event takes place under the joint auspices of the European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The overall objective is to give high level visibility and political endorsement to the topic of vaccination and issue a statement to endorse and promote the benefits of vaccination as the most successful public health measure that saves millions of lives every year. 

It will demonstrate EU leadership for global commitment to vaccination, boost political commitment towards eliminating vaccine preventable diseases and engage political leaders and leaders from scientific, medical, industry, philanthropic and civil society.

The event will be structured around the following three round tables:

Roundtable 1: In Vaccines We Trust

Stepping up action to increase vaccine confidence

Roundtable 2: The Magic of Science

Boosting vaccine research, Development, and Innovation

Roundtable 3: Vaccines protecting everyone, everywhere

Galvanizing global vaccination response – leaving no one behind and towards the elimination of vaccine preventable infections

A Summit Declaration making reference to key principles, actions and goals on vaccination will be adopted at the end of the event.

Participants

The Summit will bring together around 400 participants from around the globe, including high-level political decision makers, health ministers, UN organizations, NGOs, academia representatives, renowned researchers and healthcare professionals, vaccine industry CEOs, celebrities and social media influencers who actively support vaccination.

Participation is upon invitation only.

Rationale

Vaccination is the most successful public health measure of modern times. Thanks to widespread vaccination, smallpox has been eradicated, Europe made polio-free, and elimination of other diseases on the horizon. Vaccination prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths worldwide each year and reduces disease-specific treatment costs. Despite its brilliant track record, several EU and neighboring countries are currently facing unprecedented outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases due to insufficient vaccination coverage rates. Unequal access to vaccines and in some places waning of public confidence in vaccination is a cause for concern and a major challenge for public health experts. The WHO declared vaccine misinformation as one of the main health threats for 2019.