Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is an emerging infection, causing large outbreaks in Asia with high morbidity and mortality in children. New vaccines against EV71 have been developed and tested in China, leading to two recent publications on the efficacy of these vaccines in The New England Journal of Medicine. Although the results look promising, it is not expected that vaccination against EV71 will be introduced in Europe any time soon. Large outbreaks with high morbidity have not yet been observed in Europe, and the genotypes causing these outbreaks in Asia circulate only to a low extent in Europe. However, in the future this might change, and experience with EV71 vaccination as is now gained in China might be valuable.