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 The paper, drawn up by the German government after discussions with
other member states, is the latest to outline the EU's months-long
plans to address the WHO's shortcomings on funding, governance and
legal powers. [nL8N2FL2RZ] [nL8N2F95QO]
The document, dated Oct. 19 and seen by Reuters, urges the WHO to
adopt measures that would increase "transparency on national
compliance" with International Health Regulations. These require WHO
member states to quickly share information on health emergencies.
The United States has accused the WHO of being too close to China in
the first phase of the pandemic, when Beijing was slow in sharing
crucial information on the new coronavirus - which first appeared in
the city of Wuhan.
President Donald Trump has said the United States will end its
membership of the agency and stop its funding as a result.
The WHO has repeatedly dismissed the allegations. [nL8N2GX4L8] It
did not respond to requests for comment on the EU proposal.
Asked about the document on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry
spokesman Zhao Lijian said China wanted to "actively participate" in
WHO reform, which he said should not serve the interests of any one
country.
Reforms should "better remove political interference" from the WHO,
increase its resources and ability to deal with global public health
crises, and strengthen support for developing countries, he said in
Beijing.
The German government declined to comment on the content of the
document as it was still a draft.
The EU and its states are among the WHO's largest donors, and would
become by far the top public contributors if the United States
withdraws from the U.N. agency.
The EU draft will be discussed by EU health ministers at a video
conference next week and is aimed to be the EU's common position
ahead of the WHO assembly in mid-November, it said.
It reiterates EU support for the WHO and stresses the agency's
central role in addressing global health challenges.
However, it lists insufficient transparency as the first of many
challenges faced by the U.N. agency, as well as a lack of
"predictable and sustainable" financing.
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It also calls for "a more effective and consistently applied reporting system by
State Parties to the WHO Secretariat".
That appears to be addressing criticisms that China and other countries have not
shared information on the pandemic in a timely fashion.
The document says mechanisms to evaluate countries' compliance with reporting
obligations should be strengthened and become periodic.
The disparity between WHO member states' expectations and the organisation's
capacities should be addressed as a priority, it said.
"WAKE-UP CALL"
Preparations for a review of the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the WHO
and governments have been underway for months, and Germany has repeatedly urged
EU member states to speed up that process so that a reform of the body could be
discussed in earnest. [nL5N2EN6XI] [nL8N2DU49N]
EU health ministers have already broadly agreed a common position on reforms the
WHO would need to undergo at a video conference they held in early October,
according to a debrief of the meeting seen by Reuters.
Germany wanted a "much more ambitious" overhaul than many states would have
accepted, the debrief says without elaborating.
At that meeting, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Gheybreyesus told EU
ministers the COVID-19 pandemic "should be seen as a wake-up call" and said the
agency was reviewing how its rules were applied by member states, according to
the debrief.
The EU draft document, which was prepared after that meeting, also urges the WHO
to revise its alerting methods in health emergencies, adopting a "traffic light
system" that would convey more precisely the gravity of a crisis. [nL4N2B63KI]
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio @fraguarascio and Andreas Rinke; Additional
reporting by Gabriel Crossley in Beijing; Editing by Josephine Mason and Carmel
Crimmins)
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