European governments are working with the US on plans to restructure the World Health Organization, Reuters reported referring to a senior European official.

He signaled that Europe shares some concerns that made Washington say it would quit.

According to the official, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy discussed WHO reforms with the US at a technical level.

The aim was to ensure the independence of WHO. “We are discussing ways to separate WHO’s emergency management mechanism from any single country influence,” the official noted.

According to the official, the reforms will include a change in the WHO funding system to make it more long-term. WHO is currently operating a biennial budget that “could hurt WHO’s independence” if it has to raise funds from donor countries in the midst of an emergency, the official said.

US President Donald Trump accused the WHO of being under the influence of China and announced plans to quit and withdraw funding.

European countries have occasionally called for WHO reform but generally defended the organization from the most severe criticism from Washington.

The publicly European position usually was that any reform should be carried out only after evaluating the response to the COVID-19.

But the protocols of EU health ministers' last week videoconference showed that European countries are taking a tougher stance, as well as striving for greater European influence in WHO in the future. The German and French ministers told their colleagues “an evaluation and reform of the WHO was needed.”

This was a stronger wording than in the resolution adopted last month, developed by the EU and adopted by all 192 WHO member states. The resolution called for an assessment of the response to the COVID-19 crisis, but it did not call for reform.

The ministers of Germany and France also told their colleagues that “the EU and its member states should play a bigger role at the global level.”