Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Europe failing its solidarity test

Rosa Pavanelli 25th May 2021

By blocking Covid-19 vaccine patent waivers, the EU is damaging its reputation and holding the world back.

patent waiver,Covid-19 vaccine
Rosa Pavanelli

Earlier this month, European Union leaders met in Portugal to ‘reinvigorate’ their commitment to social rights and affirm the importance of ‘European unity and solidarity in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic’. Yet the EU’s continued opposition to the suspension of patents on Covid-19 vaccines and supplies demonstrates a stunning lack of solidarity and makes such declarations appear little more than hot air.

Many campaigners now view the EU as Big Pharma’s biggest lobbyist at the G20. If European leaders are serious about ‘ensuring no one is left behind’, it’s time to join the World Health Organization, health-worker unions, Joe Biden’s administration in the United States and the majority of the world’s governments in pushing for a Covid-19 patent waiver at the World Trade Organization—so we can ramp up production of vaccines and supplies, ensure equal access and finally end these lockdowns.

Business interests

Europe’s experience through the last global financial crisis demonstrates the dangers which arise when business interests are put ahead of social rights. After 2008, the EU’s promotion of bank bailouts and strict austerity measures decimated public services across the continent.

In Italy, the health service was slashed by €37 billion between 2010 and 2019, in part to comply with EU stringency requirements. In Greece, a Lancet study found that austerity programmes were the principal cause of increased mortality. Observing the damage, one Forbes writer noted that ‘anyone would think this was a war zone, not an advanced country’.

Not only did these measures leave many states ill-prepared for the pandemic; they also contributed to the rapid rise of Eurosceptic parties, which have doubled their vote-share over the past two decades. Prioritising social rights is about more than rebranding—it’s about securing the future of the entire EU project.

Recovery stunted

We all know recovery cannot be a return to ‘normal’. If EU leaders really want a fairer Europe, they must stop clinging to the outdated and discredited ideas which stunted the recovery after the last crisis.



Don't miss out on cutting-edge thinking.


Join tens of thousands of informed readers and stay ahead with our insightful content. It's free.



The Biden administration has already understood this and is pursuing bold and essential policy change. This includes a reformed tax system, where pandemic profiteers are made to contribute to the cost of recovery, and new legislation which would require corporations to reveal where they do (or do not) pay their taxes.

Yet when similar measures were under discussion at the EU level, leak revealed France’s official position had been developed by one of Europe’s biggest corporate lobby groups. Such revelations breed cynicism, undermine public faith and add to anti-‘Brussels’ sentiment.

Once-in-a-generation opportunity

If the EU and its member states would stop pandering to corporate interests and instead join the US in demonstrating progressive global leadership, there is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make the world a better, fairer, more social place. An opportunity to end offshore tax dodging, which costs us the equivalent of one nurse’s salary every second. To forgive odious debt in the global south, which undermines urgently needed health employment. And to reshape the development agenda so that quality public services—the key to achieving human rights—are finally put first.

Public Services International represents millions of workers across the world who have given their all to save lives and put everything in place to get us vaccinated. Just this week, Jibin Theerthakkuzhi Chalil of the United Nurses Association of India told us: ‘[W]e are facing a humanitarian disaster and we need to use all the tools we have to tame the pandemic in India and everywhere else, fast. It comes down to a simple choice, to share or not to share.’

While workers such as Chali struggle with shortages, the EU seems to care more about defending the interests of a small new group of ‘vaccine billionaires’. Is this what solidarity looks like?

Soft power

The EU’s stance is weakening the bloc’s diplomatic influence, providing ample space for China and Russia to grow their soft power through vaccine diplomacy efforts, as countries unable to produce their own supplies become increasingly reliant on Beijing and Moscow.

Meanwhile more than 400 MPs and MEPs from across Europe have called on the EU to change its position. The European Parliament has already voted in favour of patent suspensions and the sharing of lifesaving technology. And many EU leaders—including Emmanuel Macron in France and Pedro Sanchez in Spain—have said they are open to such proposals.

Yet the European Commission, along with Germany and a handful of other countries, is holding the world back through diehard devotion to Big-Pharma monopolies. German civil-society groups are pleading: ‘While we pour into beer gardens … we watch as mass graves are dug around the world. What is going on?’

By putting corporate interests ahead of the public interest, the EU is doing lasting damage to its reputation—regionally and on the global stage. It’s time to make solidarity more than just a buzzword. And that starts with supporting Covid-19 vaccine patent waivers.

Pics
Rosa Pavanelli

Rosa Pavanelli is general secretary of Public Services International (PSI) and chair of the Council of Global Unions.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u4219834676 bcba 6b2b3e733ce2 1 The End of an Era: What’s Next After Globalisation?Apostolos Thomadakis
u4219834674a bf1a 0f45ab446295 0 Germany’s Subcontracting Ban in the Meat IndustryŞerife Erol, Anneliese Kärcher, Thorsten Schulten and Manfred Walser
u4219834dafae1dc3 2 EU’s New Fiscal Rules: Balancing Budgets with Green and Digital AmbitionsPhilipp Heimberger
u42198346d1f0048 1 The Dangerous Metaphor of Unemployment “Scarring”Tom Boland and Ray Griffin
u4219834675 4ff1 998a 404323c89144 1 Why Progressive Governments Keep Failing — And How to Finally Win Back VotersMariana Mazzucato

Most Popular Articles

u4219834647f 0894ae7ca865 3 Europe’s Businesses Face a Quiet Takeover as US Investors CapitaliseTej Gonza and Timothée Duverger
u4219834674930082ba55 0 Portugal’s Political Earthquake: Centrist Grip Crumbles, Right AscendsEmanuel Ferreira
u421983467e58be8 81f2 4326 80f2 d452cfe9031e 1 “The Universities Are the Enemy”: Why Europe Must Act NowBartosz Rydliński
u42198346761805ea24 2 Trump’s ‘Golden Era’ Fades as European Allies Face Harsh New RealityFerenc Németh and Peter Kreko
startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

S&D Group in the European Parliament advertisement

Cohesion Policy

S&D Position Paper on Cohesion Policy post-2027: a resilient future for European territorial equity

Cohesion Policy aims to promote harmonious development and reduce economic, social and territorial disparities between the regions of the Union, and the backwardness of the least favoured regions with a particular focus on rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition and regions suffering from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps, such as outermost regions, regions with very low population density, islands, cross-border and mountain regions.

READ THE FULL POSITION PAPER HERE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

With a comprehensive set of relevant indicators, presented in 85 graphs and tables, the 2025 Benchmarking Working Europe report examines how EU policies can reconcile economic, social and environmental goals to ensure long-term competitiveness. Considered a key reference, this publication is an invaluable resource for supporting European social dialogue.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
The evolution of working conditions in Europe

This episode of Eurofound Talks examines the evolving landscape of European working conditions, situated at the nexus of profound technological transformation.

Mary McCaughey speaks with Barbara Gerstenberger, Eurofound's Head of Unit for Working Life, who leverages insights from the 35-year history of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS).

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Summer issue of The Progressive Post is out!


It is time to take action and to forge a path towards a Socialist renewal.


European Socialists struggle to balance their responsibilities with the need to take bold positions and actions in the face of many major crises, while far-right political parties are increasingly gaining ground. Against this background, we offer European progressive forces food for thought on projecting themselves into the future.


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss the transformative power of European Social Democracy, examine the far right’s efforts to redesign education systems to serve its own political agenda and highlight the growing threat of anti-gender movements to LGBTIQ+ rights – among other pressing topics.

READ THE MAGAZINE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

BlueskyXWhatsApp