The European Commission has announced plans to pledge €700 million to the Global Fund to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, alongside new spending on antimicrobial resistance and neglected diseases.
The commitments were announced by Commissioner for International Partnerships Jozef Síkela at the One Health Summit in Lyon, France, the Commission informed on Wednesday.
The EU intends to put €700 million towards the Global Fund’s eighth replenishment — the periodic fundraising round used to finance the partnership’s work — with €185 million available immediately under the EU’s current long-term budget.
Grants from that replenishment would be implemented between 2027 and 2029.
EU member states and the Commission together, known as Team Europe, have pledged more than €3 billion to the Global Fund’s eighth replenishment.
Team Europe contributions since the Global Fund was created in 2002 represent around one third of all donor contributions.
New funding focused on antimicrobial resistance
The Commission also announced €46.5 million for programmes to strengthen health security cooperation between Africa and Europe, with a focus on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) — when infections become harder to treat because bacteria no longer respond to antibiotics.
The funding is expected to support AMR surveillance, prevention and control, strengthen laboratory capacity and diagnostics across Africa, and increase cooperation between European and African health agencies over the next five years, the Commission said.
It listed partners including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
AMR is associated with more than 35,000 deaths annually in Europe and costs European healthcare systems an estimated €11 billion each year.
A further €50 million was announced for research and development, including €30 million to support new antibiotics and other medical countermeasures against AMR.
The funding will be managed by Germany’s development bank KfW and will support the non-profit organisations CARB-X and the Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership, according to the Commission.
It also said it had signed a €20 million contribution agreement with Agence Française de Développement to support the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative in developing dengue treatments.
The Commission noted the announcements sit within the scope of a planned Global Health Resilience Initiative, which it expects to launch before the summer.
