Strasbourg, 16/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - By adopting a joint resolution, at the end of its emergency debate, tabled by five political groups (EPP/ED, PES, ELDR, Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL) on access to medicines for people in the third world carrying HIV or afflicted with AIDS, the European Parliament calls for the setting up of a system enabling developing countries to procure the necessary medicines and vaccines under fair conditions and at affordable prices. It welcomes the declaration made by Commissioner Lamy by which the Commission supports the right of developing countries to make use of safeguard clauses enshrined in the WTO/TRIPS agreement, including compulsory licences, as well as the undertaking the Commission made to launch, within the WTO, a debate on ways of reconciling the TRIPS agreement with the goals of health protection in developing countries. The EP urges pharmaceutical companies disputing in court the law relating to medicines adopted by South Africa in 1997 to drop their cases.