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 Christos Stylianides, who takes over on Nov. 1 as the EU's
commissioner for humanitarian affairs and crisis management, will
also be the 28-nation bloc's point man on Ebola.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said that leaders
meeting in Brussels had chosen the Cypriot, following a similar move
by the United States, which recently named Ron Klain as its Ebola
"czar".
A trained dental surgeon, Stylianides, 56, has been a member of
parliament and was spokesman for the Cypriot government during last
year's financial crisis on the island.
European states have been stepping up their contributions of cash,
hospitals and health workers recently after criticism by aid
officials of a slow early response to an outbreak that has claimed
nearly 5,000 lives, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"Up until now, the response from most EU governments has been
woefully inadequate," Oxfam's Natalia Alonso said last week. The aid
group said on Thursday it expected to hear strong new pledges of
cash from EU heads of state and guarantees to turn those pledges
into cash without delay.
Oxfam also called on European countries to deploy more medics,
equipment and military personnel immediately.
British Prime Minister David Cameron wrote to other EU leaders
before the summit urging them to agree to send 2,000 healthcare
workers to Africa and to double EU financial aid to one billion
euros.
The EU leaders will say that a "sustained, coordinated and increased
response is required to curb current trends" in the spread of
infection, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.
Most European initiatives so far to counter Ebola in West Africa
have been national rather than EU efforts.
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Britain has sent 750 troops to Sierra Leone to help set up treatment
units and a training facility and it is providing more than 700
treatment beds in the former British colony.
France has promised to set up new treatment centres for Ebola in
Guinea, once a French colony.
Smaller EU countries have said they are ready to send healthcare
workers to West Africa but lack the resources to evacuate them if
they caught the disease.
The EU addressed this problem this week by providing a guarantee to
international health workers that they would either be flown to
Europe or receive high-quality treatment on the spot if they caught
the disease in West Africa.
EU countries have disagreed on the need to screen passengers
arriving in Europe on flights from disease-affected countries.
(Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
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