Labour MEP Alfred Sant has criticised the European Union for having made little progress in efforts to combat the spread of Ebola.
He was reacting to a reply given by the European Commission to a question he had submitted in mid August on the spread of Ebola.
The Labour Head of Delegation had asked the Commission what steps had been or were being taken to establish an integrated European response to the Ebola epidemic, covering areas such as health policy, national security, humanitarian intervention, air transport and development cooperation with African countries at bilateral and ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) levels.
In its reply, the European Commission said that on August 30, the European Council discussed the Ebola epidemic and called “for increased coordination at EU level of the assistance provided by EU Member States.
On September 15, the Commission convened a European high-level coordination meeting to take forward this tasking from the European Council. The meeting aimed at exchanging views with Member States, the UN System Coordinator for Ebola Virus Disease, the WHO and MSF in order to recognise the scale of the EU's current response and complementary assistance .
The EU's current response package stands at some €180 million, the Commission said. This included support for: humanitarian actions for addressing the epidemic, budget support to cushion the economic impact of the crisis, mobile laboratories to test cases and functioning health systems.
The Commission said it was now finalising an “EU Comprehensive Response Framework” document which would outline and facilitate the response of the EU to the Ebola virus epidemic, taking into consideration both the internal and the external dimension of the response. After consultation of Member States, the document should be adopted by the next European Council.
Reacting to this reply, Dr Sant said that unfortunately there had been no comprehensive response on a European level which could concretely combat the advance of the ebola epidemic.
Dr Sant said that since mid August, when he tabled his Parliamentary Question on the matter, little progress has been registered. Humanitarian initiatives by themselves are not enough to tackle this problem, he said.