Brussels. - The European Union (EU) has announced that it will provide €25 million per year in the period 2014-2020 to fund vaccines and immunisation programmes worldwide. The new support – more than double that previously committed, when on average €10 million per year were provided -  will go to the GAVI Alliance, a non-profit organisation focused on saving children"s lives and protecting people"s health by increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.

The announcement was made on Tuesday at the "Investing together for a healthy future" event in Brussels. EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, said: "The EU is delighted to host the GAVI conference here in Brussels. It sends a clear message of our long term commitment to our partnership, and to our joint work to save lives and help to prevent the further unnecessary loss of life which could be prevented from a simple vaccine."

"Thanks to donors like the EU, close to half a billion children have been immunised since 2000, resulting in 6 million lives saved", the EU announcement states.

More information: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-571_en.htm

Factsheet on EU and GAVI Alliance: Working together to save lives: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-14-362_en.htm