An advertisement for donations to fight Ebola in Africa is displayed on a bus stop
EU foreign ministers agreed to the move at a meeting in Luxembourg. It comes three days after the United States created a similar position.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the EU needs ‘someone who is not only Europe’s ‘face’ in this fight against Ebola’.
They must be ‘somebody who insures that there will be a division of labour’, he added. “There will be some competencies which only some member states have, some will be at the disposal of others.”
Whoever is named to the role will be based at the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre.
France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the EU’s priorities would be in the fight against Ebola. “The goal is simple. It’s to reverse the trend. To do that we’ll need treatment centres, training, check ups and financing control. That’s the top priority,” he said.
