Ursula Von Der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said, "Vaccines don't save lives. Vaccinations do," as she called on the first ever European Health Summit to come together to roll out the shots globally.

She added: "The development of vaccines has been a remarkable team effort. But we will need an even greater effort to deliver them to every village of this world."

The summit on Tuesday brought together (digitally) Europe's top politicians, policy makers, regulators and the health industry, to focus on shaping a centralized health response in Europe after the current pandemic exposed a fragmented reaction.

One topic for debate was the the European Health Union, a new structure proposed by the EU to centralize Europe's health response. 

The Summit will determine what the Health Union should do, with the prevailing message: "Today we build back."

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The summit heard that European countries hope to receive vaccines soon but, they say the biggest challenge isn't the logistics of administering the jabs. 

Frank Vandenbroucke, deputy prime minister of Belgium, said: "The most difficult issue is to convince your population about your priorities. And to convince your population that when you receive more and more and when you are in the millions of doses, that they indeed volunteer to have that vaccine."

One crucial question was whether member states have the political will to come together on issues of health. Hungary has received doses of the Russian vaccine and there are fears it may license it, flouting EU rules on drug approval. The country, along with Poland, is currently vetoing the EU's long-term budget and COVID-19 recovery fund and is offering little sign of an appetite for further union. 

Today's summit also touched on the more immediate question of how to avoid a new Christmas wave of the virus. The message: the virus doesn't know Christmas but it does like parties.