Excellence in Pediatrics
European Commission
On 17 June 2020, the European Commission presented the EU Vaccines Strategy to accelerate the development, manufacturing and deployment of vaccines against COVID-19. Objectives of the EU Vaccines Strategy are ensuring the quality, safety and efficacy of vaccines, securing timely access to vaccines for the Member States and their population while leading the global solidarity effort, ensuring equitable access for all in the EU to an affordable vaccine as early as possible, and making sure that preparations are made in EU countries regarding the roll-out of safe and effective vaccines, addressing transportation and deployment needs, and identifying priority groups which should gain access to vaccines first.
In May 2021, a Flash Eurobarometer survey was commissioned by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication, with the aim to obtain input from citizens in the EU about their attitudes on vaccination against COVID-19. In February 2022, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication commissioned the second wave of this survey with the aim to measure how citizens’ attitudes on vaccination against COVID-19 have developed in a changing social, political and sanitary context.
The survey explores the following topics:
- EU citizens’ willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19, their reasons for getting vaccinated or not, and what would make them more eager to get vaccinated;
- General attitudes to vaccination and the real or perceived benefits and risks of vaccination in general and COVID-19 vaccines in particular;
- General attitudes to the vaccination strategy and satisfaction levels with how public authorities handled the vaccination strategy;
- Favoured sources for reliable information on COVID-19 vaccines and which topics EU citizens would prefer to have more information about; and
- Personal experiences with COVID-19 and fear of future infection.
On behalf of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Communication, Ipsos European Public Affairs interviewed a representative sample of citizens, aged 15 and over, in all 27 EU Member States. Between 7 and 15 February 2022, 26 658 interviews were conducted via computer-assisted web interviewing (CAWI) in all countries, using Ipsos online panels and their partner network. Survey data are weighted to known population proportions. The EU27 averages are weighted according to the size of the 15+ population of each country. A technical note on the methods applied to conduct the survey is appended as an annex to this report.