Brussels, 17/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - The increasingly urgent need for a coordinated response on the part of the EU to the explosion of the Ebola epidemic, which has been declared out of control by the United Nations and is now a cause of panic to the West, having left more than 4,550 people dead in West Africa, will be the subject of a political debate and conclusions of the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the EU, in Luxembourg on Monday 20 October (see EUROPE 11177). The objective is to prepare the ground for the meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU on 23 and 24 October, when they will discuss the issue for the second time and themselves adopt conclusions on a coordinated and consolidated European response.
All aspects - humanitarian, development, security, prudent crisis management planning, sanitary - will be discussed by the ministers. But with the member states still reluctant to send medical personnel to the worst-affected countries to stem the epidemic at source and make available the resources required to organise the repatriation of international medical personnel if necessary (the MEDEVAC system), talks on this subject will be of major importance.
“The epidemic has reached the scale at which it becomes a true crisis. Through ECHO, the EEAS and DG SANCO, the Commission has been on the case since mid-August. The ministers will discuss the international dimension of this crisis. However, the crisis also has an internal aspect to it”, a senior EU official said on Friday. This is why Tonio Borg, European Commissioner for Health, has been invited to attend the session to report back to the ministers on the results of the high-level meeting of the health ministers, who decided not to roll out controls on entry to the EU, but instead to verify the security of the controls for passengers leaving the three worst-affected countries (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea), in line with the current WHO recommendations (see EUROPE 11178). Regarding the capacity of the member states to make military resources available for medical evacuation, the same source said: “We are already working on this on a case-by-case basis, as it would be hard for the member states to mobilise their aircraft and stand by night and day without there being any need for evacuation”. The official went on to refer to the framework agreement signed by the Commission with the American airline Phoenix Air. Even if called upon, however, this agreement would only repatriate two people at the same time. Since the crisis broke out in March, the EU has pledged €450 million (including €180 million from the Commission) in humanitarian aid, direct budgetary support and development aid for the countries affected. (AN)