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The President of the European Commission supported calls for an investigation into the origin of the new coronavirus and said China should be involved in the process.
Lawmakers in countries like Germany, Sweden and Australia have called for an investigation into how the virus started, which has so far infected more than 3.2 million people and killed more than 230,000.
Speaking to CNBC, Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s executive arm, said she would like to see China work together with her organization and others to get to the bottom of exactly how it came about.
“I think this is important for all of us, I mean for everyone it is important. You never know when the next virus is starting, so we all want next time, we have learned our lesson, and we have put in place an early warning system. it really works and everyone has to contribute to that, “he told Geoff Cutmore in an exclusive interview Thursday.
He called for more transparency in the future and said that governments should learn lessons from the current crisis.
“One of the lessons learned from this pandemic is that we need stronger data, overall, and we need more centralized than an entity that is analyzing that data to make the early warning mechanism much better,” he said.
“For example, at the European Union level, we know that we need a more robust data system for situations like the ones we are currently seeing with the coronavirus. And to build a system that is reliable.” “
China criticized
The new coronavirus strain, known as Covid-19, was first reported in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
While China has deployed doctors and dispatched teams to nations struggling with the coronavirus abroad, the country has faced criticism of its own handling of the virus, which experts believe originated in a wildlife market or wet market.
We do not cover anything and do not delay any effort.
Le Yucheng
Chinese Deputy Prime Minister
In late January, Chinese authorities announced a temporary ban on wildlife trade in wet markets, supermarkets, restaurants and e-commerce platforms, but experts and wildlife organizations have called for a permanent ban to help prevent future pandemics.
China has also been criticized for lack of transparency during the outbreak, amid claims that Beijing was too slow to respond. The WHO warned that individual countries should not be blamed for the spread of Covid-19, cautioning that pointing fingers at nations with large numbers of cases could discourage accurate reporting of national outbreaks.
China has denied wrongdoing. In an interview with NBC on Tuesday, Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Le Yucheng said: “China has been open, transparent and responsible in its Covid-19 response. We cover nothing, and do not delay any effort. We have already released the timeline. how we have shared the information about Covid-19. “
Le Yucheng added that there is no international law that supports blaming a country simply for being the first to report a disease. “Nor does history offer any precedent,” he said.
In the United States, President Donald Trump said Thursday, without offering any evidence, that he has a high degree of confidence that the coronavirus outbreak originated in a laboratory in China. His comments came after the top spy agency in the US USA He said that the country’s collective intelligence community did not believe that the virus was artificial or genetically modified.
EU-China relations
When asked if an investigation could lead to a weakening of relations with China, von der Leyen did not agree that this would be the case: “No, I do not think so, because it is all in our own interest. I mean, this is The pandemic has caused a lot of damage, “he told CNBC.
“Therefore, it is in our interest, of all countries, that we are better prepared next time. We will, we do not know when such a crisis will occur again, but now we should be better prepared.”
His comments come at a time when the European Commission has been under pressure for allegedly softening the tone of a disinformation report on the coronavirus.
The institution has denied succumbing to pressure from Beijing, but its foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has not denied that China has expressed concern about the report, Politico reported.
—Clob Taylor of CNBC contributed to this article.
