EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said the bloc had reached an important milestone of 70 percent of adults having received a first dose and 57 percent fully vaccinated. Projections showed that the EU would reach its goal by the end of the summer, she said in a statement.
The EU's vaccine campaign got off to a slow start relative to the likes of Britain and the United States due to delays in deliveries of vaccine doses, notably those of AstraZeneca, against which it launched legal proceedings. read more
However, after a sharp ramp-up in supplies from the second quarter, particularly of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was now among the world leaders.
"The catch-up process has been very successful - but we need to keep up the effort," she said.
"The delta variant is very dangerous. I, therefore, call on everyone - who has the opportunity - to be vaccinated. For their own health and to protect others," she continued.