The European Union has spoken out in support of the World Health Organization, after US President Donald Trump threatened to permanently pull funding to the agency.
“The European Union backs the WHO in its efforts to contain and mitigate the Covid-19 outbreak and has already provided additional funding to support these efforts,” spokesperson for the European Commission Virginie Battu-Henriksson said Tuesday.
Trump on Monday threatened to permanently pull US funding from the WHO if it does not “commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days.”
The EU spokesperson stressed that “global cooperation and solidarity through multilateral efforts” was “the only effective and viable option to win” the battle against the pandemic.
“This is the time for solidarity, it is not the time for finger pointing or undermining multilateral cooperation, especially today as we are awaiting for the approval … of a resolution which has been presented by the European Union and its member states at the World Health Assembly,” Battu-Henriksson said.
