Brussels, 10/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - MEP and former development minister of his country Charles Goerens (ALDE, Luxembourg), appointed by the European Parliament development committee as rapporteur on the burning issue of Ebola, is getting down to the drafting of an own initiative report. This report will consider both the immediate measures to be taken to contain the pandemic and longer-term development measures needed for the West African countries affected and whose economies are already suffering.
“Given that we have to move faster than the virus, the views of the top experts will be sought to determine the EU's political response” Goerens said on Friday, with regard to urgent short-term measures. He added: “We cannot, however, shut our eyes to the responsibility of the international community in the development of the pandemic. What has to be determined is whether the reluctance of the response to this scourge was due to the various players involved or to systemic failure” (our translation).
Goerens recently expressed his anger at the unwillingness to set up the Medivac evacuation system and the time it took to repatriate a French nurse who had contracted the virus and who was ultimately returned to France on by an American plane (see EUROPE 11161). (AN)