Germany laments U.S. exit from WHO, says EU seeks to reform it

GENEVA — Germany’s health minister on Wednesday lamented the formal U.S. notification of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization as a “setback for international cooperation” and said Europe would work to reform the UN health agency.

The comments from German Health Minister Jens Spahn epitomized concerns in Europe over the WHO’s largest contributor preparing to pull out following the Trump administration’s complaints that the agency too readily accepted China’s explanations of its early handling of the coronavirus.

Spahn said on Twitter that more global co-operation, not less, is needed to fight pandemics, adding: “European states will initiate #WHO reforms.”

The United Nations and the U.S. State Department said

Tuesday that the Trump administration had formally notified the UN that the U.S. would leave the WHO next year. The notification, which could be rescinded by a new administration, makes good on President Donald Trump’s vow in late May to terminate U.S. participation in the WHO. Trump has criticized the UN health agency for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak, accusing officials of bowing to China.

The U.S. provides WHO with more than $450 million (U.S.) per year and currently owes some $200 million in current and past dues.

Juergen Hardt, a foreign policy spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s centre-right coalition, said the U.S. withdrawal damages American and Western strategic interests just as China, a key WHO member state, has been taking a greater role in international institutions.

“As the biggest contributor so far, the U.S. leaves a big vacuum,” Hardt said. “It is foreseeable that China above all will try to fill this vacuum itself. That will further complicate necessary reforms in the organization. It is all the more important that the EU uses its political weight and strengthens its involvement in the WHO as in other international organizations,” he added.