“External advisers are external, independent personalities. They therefore do not speak for Mr Borrell, nor for the Commission. Their opinions are their own.” the spokesman added. According to his contract, which is publicly acknowledged on the European Commission’s website, Professor Sachs provides 20 hours of consultancy each year. In an article published on the Project Syndicate website last year, Professor Sachs wrote that allegations of genocide in Xinjiang, home to China’s Uyghur minority, were “justified”. In 2019, the economist was criticized for criticizing the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive at Beijing-backed tech giant Huawei, as an example of the US. While working for former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Professor Sachs led the controversial Millennium Villages project to create sustainable villages across Africa and end poverty. The project was criticized for relying on Western academics with little understanding of the local environment. In an interview with Iranian media published online last week, Professor Sachs once again blamed the US for the global Covid-19 pandemic. Experts from the World Health Organization have largely traced a wet market in Wuhan, China, to the origin of the first outbreak of the pandemic. A natural spread to humans from animals was said to be the most likely cause and a laboratory spill scenario “extremely unlikely”. Professor Sachs did not respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment.
