Spanish
Brussels, June 19 (EFE).- Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has become a philanthropist and has announced that he will donate most of his fortune, valued at 200 billion dollars, to Africa, will appear next Tuesday before the European Parliament's Development Committee.
According to a statement released by the European Parliament, the founder of the Gates Foundation will participate for an hour before MEPs in a debate on development aid, at a time when US President Donald Trump has cut this item.
In a recent interview in The New York Times, Gates, 69 years old, denounced the cuts in programs to combat malaria, polio and other diseases that threaten the lives of millions of people in developing countries.
Gates' appearance will take place after the European Parliament failed this week to take a united stance to the International Conference on Financing for Development of the United Nations, which will be held in Seville between June 30 and July 3. The European People's Party aligned with far-right groups to vote against.
Parliamentary sources involved in the negotiation of the text told EFE that, although it is not binding nor has consequences at the summit, this rejection prevents the European Parliament from presenting itself in Seville as one of the great defenders of the multilateral system and international consensus on development.
It is particularly relevant, they lamented, due to the "withdrawal" of the United States from these consensuses after Donald Trump's return to the presidency, which leaves the European Union as the main global actor in this sector.
