European Council President Donald Tusk has announced €550m in EU Global Fund support, to go towards fighting AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
The Global Fund is a public-private partnership which acts as a financial instrument for combating AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, drawing investment from more than 60 countries: EU Global Fund support makes up around 5% of the fund’s resources, rising to 50% when taking into account the additional funding provided individually by EU Member States. The EU has contributed more than €2.6bn to the Global Fund since its inception in 2002; in the same period the fund has saved around 27 million lives through measures including:
- Distributing antiretroviral therapy to AIDS patients;
- Testing providing treatment for tuberculosis; and
- Distributing mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria.
President Tusk announced the EU Global Fund support at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, ahead of a donors’ conference set to take place in Lyon, France on 9 and 10 October. The goal of the Global Fund is to eliminate the epidemics of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis worldwide by 2030; to this end the fund has set a target of raising €12.6 billion between 2020 and 2022. If the fund is successful in reaching this goal, it will be able to prevent 234 million infections, halve the mortality rates of all three diseases and save 16 million lives, as well as strengthening healthcare systems in countries most affected by the epidemics.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “The EU has been a strong supporter of the Global Fund since its creation, when the AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis epidemics seemed to be unbeatable – and today we are announcing a record contribution of a further €550 million. We hope the international community will follow suit and step up the fight to fulfil the Fund’s target of ending these diseases’ epidemics by 2030.”
