Image: Alexandros Michailidis, via Shutterstock
More than €15 billion will go to activities including research
The European Commission has pledged that the EU “will secure financial support to partner countries amounting to more than €15.6 billion” to support global efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of this, €2.8bn will support research, health and water systems, the Commission announced on 8 April, including research “on diagnostics, treatment and prevention, and once a vaccine is available, fast-tracking approval and subsidising vaccines and their delivery in vulnerable countries”.
The money will come “from existing external action resources”, including by “allowing some EU funding from global health initiatives like the Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria…to be used to respond to the coronavirus, while ensuring continuation of vital health programmes”.
Most of the funding, €12.3bn, will be used to address the economic and social consequences of the pandemic. Of the total funding, €3.25bn will go to Africa, €2.1bn for countries just outside the EU’s southern borders, €962 million for countries outside its eastern borders and €800m for the Western Balkans and Turkey.
“We all know that only together we can stop the worldwide spread of the coronavirus,” said Commission president Ursula von der Leyen (pictured). “To that end, the EU will soon convene a virtual pledging event to help mobilise the necessary funding and support the World Health Organization to assist the most vulnerable countries.”
The Commission also announced that two new calls from the EU R&D programme will launch on 10 April “to support research on the coronavirus and strengthen research capacities in sub-Saharan Africa” under the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership.
A call launched on 3 April with €2.25m from the EU will fund research into pandemic preparedness, to develop point-of-care diagnostics and validate tests. One new call will use €18m from the EU to strengthen EDCTP Regional Networks’ capacity to conduct multi-country clinical trials, while the second will use €5m to train epidemiologists.
“The coronavirus outbreak is a global emergency, and we need to defeat it together,” said EU R&D commissioner Mariya Gabriel. “I am pleased to see the EU and Africa stepping up their collaboration through EDCTP, which is a key player in the global health research arena.”