The EU believes it is necessary to investigate the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic

The European Union on Thursday defended the need to investigate the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, as the United States has also requested.

"The world has the right to know exactly what happened in order to learn the lessons and we support all efforts to achieve this transparency and to know the truth," European Council President Charles Michel told a press conference ahead of the G7 summit starting tomorrow in the UK.

"Researchers need full access to what is necessary to really find the origin of this pandemic," European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen defended at the same press conference.

"I have spoken (on several occasions) about the lessons the EU learned from the experience of the financial crisis, and from that experience we made a good analysis and developed the tools so that in the health crisis we could be quicker," she argued.

"The same has to happen here," Von der Leyen said. 

The request to continue investigating the origin of the pandemic comes after the mission that the World Health Organisation (WHO) sent to the Chinese city of Wuhan - where SARS-CoV-2 allegedly emerged - has left doubts in the international community about its conclusions, due to pressure from Beijing. 

In addition, US President Joe Biden has asked his intelligence services to redouble their efforts to find out the origin of the virus, after the theory that it emerged in a Wuhan laboratory regained momentum.

"There are a variety of different options that are being investigated right now and it is important that we need to have a single picture of the beginning of the pandemic," Von der Leyen said.

"That is why the research teams need real access to information," she added.