NEW DELHI: European Union Commission has announced that the grouping, along with its partner organisations, will be hosting an international pledging conference today, May 4, in order to raise a targeted fund of $8 billion. This fund will be used to initiate a global cooperation to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, ways of better diagnosis and prognosis for the disease. The announcement was made by Charles Michel, President, European Council; Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President; Emmanuel Macron, President, France; Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany; Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister, Italy and Erna Solberg, Prime Minister, Norway, in a joint statement. In an interview, von Der Leyen said that the pandemic can only be resolved by the development of a vaccine, for which, globally coordinated research is needed.
Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million to the fundraiser and announced that they will co-lead the global response. EU will also partner with prominent international funds like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust to develop the required medical treatments for the virus. The funds collected will be directed to global health organisations like Coalition for Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi Vaccine Alliance, United amongst others. EU leaders have also confirmed that they will also be supporting the World Health Organisation with the fund. They have also said that they were building on the commitment by G20, which had earlier launched ‘Access to Covid-19 Tools (ACT) acceleration’, which is a global platform for the exchange of research and treatment methodologies for the virus.