EU leaders agree to raise Ebola aid budget to 1 bln euros


BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders agreed on Friday to roughly double their financial support for efforts to fight the deadly Ebola epidemic in Africa to 1 billion euros, the chairman of their Brussels summit, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, said.

“EU will increase financial help to 1 billion euros to fight Ebola in West Africa,” he said in a Twitter messsage. Total contributions from the 28 nations had been running at about 500 million euros ($630 million) and there had been criticism that the wealthy Europeans were not doing more.

(1 US dollar = 0.7908 euro)