The European Parliament adopted a declaration signed by 397 Members on continued and increased support for vaccinations in developing nations.

Members recall that vaccine-preventable diseases, including hepatitis, measles, pneumococcal disease, rotavirus diarrhoea, polio and yellow fever, constitute a major cause of childhood deaths in the developing world. In addition, disease prevalence is a barrier to achieving sustainable socio-economic development.

They highlight that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) has been recognised as a highly efficient means by which to achieve development and humanitarian objectives. In the past decade, GAVI has made great progress in saving lives and expanding immunisation coverage in the world's poorest countries. As a result, 288 million more children have been immunised and more than five million future deaths prevented.

Despite these advances, 1.7 million children die from vaccine-preventable diseases every year. Hence the reason why Parliament urges the Commission to make a continued commitment to reducing the number of vaccine-preventable deaths in its future external actions. It congratulates the Commission on the support it has given to the GAVI via the Development Cooperation Instrument and the European Development Fund between 2003 and 2012.