Brussels, 21/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - The action plan adopted, this Wednesday, by the Commission "accelerating the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the context of poverty reduction" (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.8) will guide the Community's contribution to the increased effort that will be agreed upon at the international level to break the infernal cycle of the disease and poverty in developing countries. By presenting to the press the content of this action plan, Poul Nielson, European Commission for Development spoke of the urgency to tackle in amore radical manner to "three transmissible disease that cause 5 million deaths each year world-wide by causing, in addition to this, a loss of economic performance, especially in the developing countries. "The preventative actions will continue to constitute a more significant aspect of the Community action", specified the Commissioner, as prevention is effective and represents a long-lasting solution specifically adapted to the poor countries in which the resources allocated to health care are derisory (USD 5 per year and per inhabitant on the Sub-Saharan African countries). The prevention efforts are nevertheless supported by actions centred on three strategic objectives that Poul Nielson detailed in the following manner:
Optimise the impact and effectiveness of existing interventions - to do this it requires to: a) scour farther a field to gain the support of public powers and closely work with civil society in the LDC, which will allow for the increasing of access by these countries to Community interventions; b) accelerate the pace of the delivery of aid, in accordance with the priority aim that the Commission gave itself in its reform of external aid management. "Between 1995 and 2000, the Commission allocated EUR 1.7 billion to the fight against AIDS in LDC. In the autumn of 2000, only 17% was spent", noted Poul Nielson, for whom "spending what was allocated constitutes a true challenge if we want to go beyond simple market effects". This all the more so that an additional EUR 800 million are in the process of being provided from the 2000 budget for programmes in health, the fight against AIDS and demographic programmes (or 18% of the total budget for cooperation for development). Raising increased coordination with the WHO, the UN, the G8 members, the Union Member States, NGOs and industry, Poul Nielson underlined that this "might not be revolutionary", but that he was very surprised by the extremely positive reaction given by all of the partners at the international round table on last 28 September, organised on the initiative of the Commission, which acted as a catalyst for the concerted mobilisation over the last six months.
Facilitating access to medicines - the Community will concentrate on supporting and strengthening local production in developing countries, to help them develop the capacities required to manage the health care sector, research and issues linked to trade, an aim which, according to the Commission goes well beyond the price of medicines. In fact it would be appropriate to "promote the consensus within the WTO for the developing countries to benefit from the margin of interpretation possible from the TRIPS agreements on intellectual property to tackle issues of public health. The obligatory licences offer, in this regard, a possibility that should be used, feels the Commission. The Community undertaking to promote a differentiated tariff system allowing the poorest developing countries to be supplied with pharmaceutical products at affordable prices would complete this tool. "Europe preferably wants to buy in the South, which required the improvement of the competitive capabilities of the LDC", added Poul Nielson. The untying of aid, which enabled to open the calls for tenders in 77 ACP countries in the framework of public acquisitions, increase the competition between Member States, and according to him goes in the right direction. To encourage the production of pharmaceutical products in LDC, the Commission is now proposing to open calls for tenders to all Union partner developing countries, on a regional basis (Latin American, Asia countries and the whole Mediterranean). "It is proof of solidarity. I hope that we will thus be able to exercise sufficient pressure to reduce prices for pharmaceutical products", stated Poul Nielson.
Intensifying research and development of world public goods - to remedy to aberration which today means that "only 10% of research funds are dedicated to diseases that affect 90% of the Southern countries", it is important to strengthen to capabilities of the LDC to test new products stemming from R&D, "so that these countries have a voice in the fight against these diseases".
The action plan, outlined in a Commission Communication, will be passed on to the Parliament and Council for approval before being broken down into specific work plans that will mobilise the services of Commissioners Nielson, Busquin (Research), Liikanen (Industry), Byrne (health), Lamy (Trade), and Patten (External Relations).