Strasbourg, 25/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Tuesday 24 April, the European Parliament adopted the report by Latvian Liberal MEP Georgs Andrejevs, backing the various actions set out by the European Commission in its communication on combating AIDS in the EU and neighbouring countries. The Parliament stressed that information and prevention campaigns, and notably measures to promote the use of female condoms, should be launched. It also wanted a reduction in the costs of treatment.
The European Parliament agreed with the rapporteur and called on member states to give the Commission a mandate to negotiate an agreement with the pharmaceutical industry to reduce the costs of anti-retroviral drugs in the EU. The EP says that limited alterations to a product should result in only a proportionate extension of licences. Prevention and information remain the priorities in any campaign, according to the Parliament, which recommends campaigns targeting high risk groups: migrants and immigrants, and sex-industry workers and their clients. The Parliament argued for the promotion of the use of condoms, including female condoms, as Dutch Social Democrat MEP Dorette Corbey proposed.
The Commission action plan includes assistance for countries bordering on the EU as part of the neighbourhood policy. MEPs urged the use of all political and financial instruments available under the European Neighbourhood Policy, the Nordic Dimension and the TACIS programme (aid for the ex-USSR states, with emphasis on the Kaliningrad region) and the creation of public-private partnerships. MEPs felt that assistance should include putting in place an HIV counselling and testing, and drug distribution and follow-up infrastructure.
During the debate, several MEPs welcomed the commitment of the German presidency. Through Minister Ulla Schmidt, the presidency said that, among its priorities, was access to diagnosis and to treatment. Ms Schmidt said the pharmaceutical industry was ready for discussions with the Commission and Parliament and that this was a huge step forward. She also said that combating HIV/AIDS would be on the agenda for the June European Council.
Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, speaking in the debate, said that “the new generation of young people who have become sexually active during the last few years have not been made aware of the dangers”. “25 years after the appearance of this epidemic, we are returning to basic measures. We are now paying for our complacent attitude,” he said, adding that “the last 25 years have been a failure”.
The Council of Ministers, in Luxemburg on 23 April, also adopted conclusions on HIV/AIDS issues that have come up recently. The Council called on the Commission and member states, at national level, to adopt and strengthen legislative, political and administrative measures to promote and protect the rights of women and girls and to make them less vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, by removing all forms of violence, victimisation and discrimination and all forms of sexual exploitation of women, girls and young boys. The Council encouraged the Commission and member states to ensure the implementation of commitments made as part of the European action programme on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and called on them to report progress made, particularly with reference to HIV/AIDS, as part of the pooling of monitoring and reporting on the European action programme, in 2008 and 2010. (oj)