The European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism transported a batch of 50,400 COVID-19 vaccines to Serbia. The AstraZeneca vaccines are a donation from Romania, an EU member state bordering Serbia. Today’s delivery constitutes another rapid reaction of the EU to the country’s needs in the fight against COVID-19. Overall, the EU has mobilised more than €66 million for Serbia for the immediate response against the coronavirus and will invest much more to support the economy, in particular small and medium sized enterprises.

Since March 2020, this is the 9th EU Civil Protection Mechanism operation responding to Serbian needs to fight COVID-19. The overall amount of assistance mobilised from the EU for Serbia through this mechanism reaches today more than €7 million. These funds served so far largely to deliver protective masks and other protective gear to Serbia which were later being used in hospitals and by police services and in the public administration.

Background

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism facilitates cooperation in emergency response, preparation and prevention between Member States, as well as several other European countries. Serbia became a member in 2015, but had already benefitted before that, during the devastating floods in May 2014.  That operation has been one of the largest since the Mechanism was established.