Failing EU Commission Co-Hosts G20 ‘Global Health Summit’, Making Claims Of Global Leadership.

Yesterday 21 May 2021 a virtual G20 summit took place in Rome, co-hosted by Italy (current G20 chair) and the EU Commission. The subject was ‘global health policy, specifically focusing on Covid-19 and global co-operation in vaccines and testing.

In its usual avalanche of propaganda about this event, the EU Commission made many claims for itself, some of which involved very significant sums. Here is how the EU Commission described the event overall.

“The Global Health Summit, co-hosted on 21 May by the European Commission and Italy as chair of the G20, has brought together G20 leaders, heads of international and regional organisations, and representatives of global health bodies, to share lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, and develop and endorse the ‘Rome Declaration’ of principles.

“The principles agreed should be a powerful guide for further multilateral cooperation and joint action to prevent future global health crises, and for a joint commitment to build a healthier, safer, fairer and more sustainable world.”

- EU Commission statement, Fri 21 May 2021

Putting aside the EU Commission’s woeful performance in its declared aim of vaccinating the populations of EU27 countries, I decided to look at the raw facts available from GAVI. This is the organisation that is coordinating the COVAX programme to help poorer countries deal with Covid-19 on behalf of the WHO.

Funding vaccines for poorer nations globally

The real contributions to the COVAX Fund — the UK outspends the EU Commission by 56%

United Kingdom: $735.2m (£522.0m GBP)

EU Commission: $476.7m (£338.5m GBP)

[Source: Official COVAX contributions listed by GAVI, updated 10 May 2021.]

YES, this little island that Remainers told everyone would wither and die and would have no influence in the world if we left the EU, is now leading the whole of Europe and putting the EU to shame in the fight against Covid. 27 countries in the EU and between them they can only muster a paltry 338.5m quid between them to give to the COVAX Fund. PATHETIC.

In her speech yesterday, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said

“This very first G20 summit on health marks the beginning of a new chapter in global health policy. World leaders strongly committed to multi-lateralism and global cooperation in health.”

The question that has not been asked is whether ordinary people have been asked for their views and whether ‘world leaders’ are pursuing a path that might be thought to be leading to a one-world government. Because let's face it there are now 27 countries in the world that do now have, one European government.

Let me explain what is COVAX and who are GAVI

COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the “Access to COVID-19 Tools” (ACT) Accelerator.

The ACT Accelerator is a global collaboration “to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.”

COVAX is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO), alongside key delivery partner UNICEF. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Yet again the EU Commission has been posturing on the world stage, co-hosting a special G20 summit despite the EU not being a country in its own right. Somewhat bizarrely, it did so on a subject where its own performance has been very poor and on which it has been widely criticised.

To make matters worse, in its various statements yesterday the Commission repeatedly referred to the nauseating and factually incorrect term “Team Europe”. This makes it sound more like an entry in the Tour de France cycling championship, or — heaven forbid — an entry in this evening’s ‘Eurovision Song Contest.

Not only is this term incorrect because the EU does not represent Europe, only a part of it, but I also looked at the EU countries which have contributed according to the official record from GAVI.

Only 16 of the EU’s 27 member countries are shown on GAVI’s official listing of contributors. So “Team Europe” only includes just over half the EU’s member countries, and doesn’t include the other 25-odd who make up the rest of ‘Europe’ outside the EU. And yet GAVI has bowed to the Commission’s overarching term “Team Europe” as a heading for just 16 EU countries.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has quietly contributed 54% more to COVAX than the EU Commission. To give another comparison, the UK has contributed 156 times more than the EU Commission’s host country — Belgium.

‘Globalist’ versus ‘outward-looking globally’

The second troubling aspect of all this is more subtle and more sinister. Increasingly international organisations have been coming together in what is best described as ‘globalist’ endeavours. Whilst this may sound like something to be welcomed, the reality is that it is contributing to a form of global group-think.

It is important to make the distinction between ‘globalist’ and ‘outward-looking globally’. During the EU Referendum campaign and in the subsequent years, Remainers tried to use the absurd soubriquet of ‘Little Englanders’ to describe Brexiteers. In my experience, Brexiteers are far more open to the rest of the world than Remainers with their preoccupation with being part of an EU superstate.

When it comes to the COVAX programme to give poorer countries access to vaccines, (whatever the rights or wrongs of vaccines), it is noticeable that the organisation coordinating the effort — GAVI — was happy to lump EU countries under the EU Commission’s preferred collective title of “Team Europe”, despite this being a complete misnomer.

This is indicative of the same globalist mentality and group-think, with organisations supporting each other in the abuse of language for ideological ends. MY response is simple: “Who do you think you are kidding, von der Leyen?”

Sources: EU Commission | GAVI ]