Press release
EU
Ambassador to The Gambia Attila Lajos said:
“In this time of crisis we all must play our part and take up
responsibility and so does the European Union”
The
European Union is a global actor and as such, it bears a specific duty to
address global threats and to fight further spread of the coronavirus
(COVID-19) outbreak globally, whilst protecting States with weaker health
systems.
In
this respect, the European Union has already pledged EUR 232 million to combat
COVID-19 of which EUR 114 million through the World Health Organisation (WHO).
This
will enable WHO to help scale up global preparedness for COVID-19 through
building sustainable health emergency capacities. This is to ensure that action
is taken to immediately assist countries to rapidly detect, diagnose, and
prevent the further spread of the virus as well as ensure that activities lead
towards sustainable country core capacities to prevent epidemics.
Moreover,
through The EU Centres of Excellence on Chemical, Biological, Radiological and
Nuclear Risk Mitigation programme (CBRN CoE), DEVCO contributes 15 million EUR
with specific focus on Africa. EUR 5 Million are immediately allocated to the
Pasteur Institute in Dakar and its network to quickly cover Africa and
countries so far not-affected with expert trainings, rapid diagnosis and
epidemiological surveillance. Additionally, within 6 months, EUR 5 Million are
allocated to extend the geographic scope of EU funded “MediLabSecure/
Stronglabs” projects, aiming to prevent vector-borne diseases by reinforcing an
international network of laboratories and public health institutions in 22
beneficiary countries, as well as the Mediterranean and Black Sea field
epidemiology training programme network to increase security in the EU
neighbourhood, to cover all Africa and the whole Centres of Excellence network.
Lastly,
on the vaccine front, , the EU Commission has secured an additional EUR 37.5
million for urgently needed research on COVID-19 vaccine development, treatment
and diagnostics. This additional funding from the EU Research and Innovation
programme, Horizon 2020, brings the total funding to EUR 47.5 million, to
finance 17 selected projects involving 136 research teams from across the EU
and beyond. They will work on developing vaccines, new treatments, diagnostic
tests and medical systems aimed at preventing the spread of the Coronavirus.
Since
COVID-19 threat is global, our response must be global and at the same time
adjusted to the specific situation in-country: this is exactly what the
European is doing, in partnership with WHO.
