Brussels, 15/07/2004 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Commission decided to grant an additional 42 million EUR to the Global Fund to fight against Aids, tuberculosis and malaria in the developing countries, which currently has a budget of 2.4 billion US dollars. This decision brings to 375 million EUR the Commission's total contribution to the fund since it was set up in 2002 (18% of total donations). At this stage, the Commission has honoured 80% of its commitments and kept its place as second largest donor for 2002-2006 after the United States. However, if the contributions of the Member States are also taken into account, the European Union is the largest donor. Its commitments cover 2.8 billion US dollars until 2007, and represents over 55% of the sums promised by international donors over the same period.