European Parliament resolution on AIDS
Date: 2006-11-30
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: AIDS, developing countries, epidemic, health aid, health policy, medicinal product, reproductive health, right to health

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Thursday 30 November 2006

(b) adapting the powers of the European agencies (Europol, Eurojust, Frontex, OLAF, CEPOL, etc.) so as to

enable them to implement the strategic priorities established by the Member States at EU level;

(c) making it possible to prevent and tackle civil crisis situations with international repercussions; here,
there already exists a certain amount of expertise at the level of the Commission and Council Secretar-
iat-General for pooling human, technical and financial resources at very short notice;

15.
Calls upon the Commission to endeavour to speed up the process of implementing the SIS II, to
keep Parliament informed regarding the advances made in the process and to submit reasons for the delays
which have already occurred and for any further delays which may occur in the future;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the European Council, the Council, the Commis-

16.
sion and the Governments and Parliaments of the Member States.

P6_TA(2006)0526

AIDS

The European Parliament,

European Parliament resolution on AIDS

— having regard to its resolution of 6 July 2006 entitled ‘HIV/AIDS: Time to Deliver’ (1) and its resolution

of 2 December 2004 on World Aids Day (2),

— having regard to World AIDS Day on 1 December 2006 and its theme:

Keep the Promise’,

‘Accountability: Stop AIDS,

— having regard to the UNAIDS (3) 2006 AIDS Epidemic Update, published on 21 November 2006,

— having regard to the UN High Level Meeting to review progress on the Declaration of Commitment on

HIV/AIDS, held from 31 May to 2 June 2006,

— having regard to the XVI International AIDS Conference, held in Toronto in August 2006,

— having regard to the Commission Communication to the European Parliament and the Council of
27 April 2005 entitled European Programme for Action to Confront HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tubercu-
losis through External Action (2007-2011) (COM(2005)0179) which covers all developing countries,

— having regard to the Commission Communication to the European Parliament and the Council on
combating HIV/AIDS within the European Union and in the neighbouring countries, 2006-2009
(COM(2005)0654), of 15 December 2005,

— having regard to the G8 Summit held at Gleneagles in July 2005 and the commitment which the UN

undertook in 2005 to achieving universal access to prevention treatment and care by 2010,

— having regard to Rule 103(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas more than 25 million people have died from AIDS since the first identified case of the disease

25 years ago,

B. whereas there were 4,3 million new cases of infection in 2006, 2,8 million (65 %) of which were in
Sub-Saharan Africa alone, according to the UNAIDS' update report published on 21 November 2006,

(1) Texts Adopted, P6_TA(2006)0321.
(2) OJ C 208 E, 25.8.2005, p. 58.
(3)

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

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C. whereas over 95 % of the 39,5 million people in the world suffering from HIV/AIDS live in developing

countries,

Thursday 30 November 2006

D. whereas there are indications that infection rates in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have risen by more

than 50 % since 2004, and only in a few countries have new infections actually declined,

E. whereas, of the 6,8 million people living with HIV in low and middle-income countries and in need of

anti-retroviral medication, only 24 % have access to the necessary treatment,

F. whereas there are an estimated 15 million HIV/AIDS orphans globally, 12,3 million of them living in

Sub-Saharan Africa,

G. whereas only 5 % of HIV-positive children receive medical help, and fewer than 10 % of the 15 million

already orphaned by AIDS get financial support,

H. whereas older siblings and grandparents take on responsibility for often large numbers of AIDS
orphans, and the dying generation of HIV/AIDS-infected young adults is leaving some countries with
too few teachers, nurses, doctors and other key professionals,

I. whereas AIDS disproportionately affects the generation of economically active young people,

J. whereas women now account for 50 % of people living with HIV worldwide and nearly 60 % of people

living with HIV in Africa,

K. whereas the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will only be achieved if sexual and reproductive

health issues are fully integrated into the MDG agenda,

L. whereas sexual and reproductive health is dependent upon the prevention of HIV and of other diseases

linked to poverty,

M. whereas people living with HIV have special reproductive health needs in terms of family planning, safe
birthing and the breastfeeding of babies, which are often overlooked in spite of the growing number of
women succumbing to the epidemic,

N. whereas the US Bush administration continues to block funding for non-US development NGOs that
counsel on the full range of reproductive health services; and whereas the majority of this ‘decency gap’
has been filled by the EU for the poorest countries,

O. whereas the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) of 1994 and ICPD fol-
low-up work undertaken in 1999 and 2004 reaffirmed the importance of empowering women and
providing them with more choices by improving their access to sexual and reproductive health educa-
tion, information and care,

P. whereas five years after the Doha Declaration, rich countries are still failing to fulfil their obligation to

ensure that cheaper life-saving drugs are available in developing countries,

Q. whereas five years after the Doha Declaration, which stated that ‘each member state of the WTO has
the right to grant compulsory licenses and the freedom to determine the grounds upon which such
licenses are granted’, the WHO warns that 74 % of AIDS medicines are still under monopoly and 77 %
of Africans still have no access to AIDS treatment,

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R. whereas fierce competition in the generic pharmaceuticals industry has helped prices for first-line AIDS
drug regimens fall by 99 % since 2000, from USD 10 000 to roughly USD 130 per patient per year,
although prices for second-line drugs — which patients need as resistance develops naturally — remain
high, mostly owing to increased use of patents in key generic pharmaceutical-producing countries,

S. whereas in the negotiation of bilateral trade deals, agreements should not limit how countries may use

public-health safeguards,

HIV/AIDS in the world

1.
Expresses its deepest concern at the spread of HIV/AIDS and other epidemics among the poorest
peoples in the world and at the lack of focus on the prevention of HIV/AIDS, the inaccessibility of key
medicines, the insufficiency of funding and the continuing need for more research into the major epidemics;

Stresses the importance of the accountability of governments, health service providers, the pharma-

2.
ceuticals industry, NGOs, civil society and others involved in prevention, treatment and care;

3.
Calls on all international donors to work to ensure that HIV prevention programmes reach the people
most at risk of infection, as identified in the UNAIDS conclusion that these vulnerable groups are not being
provided for;

4.
Stresses the need for the EU to fund specific programmes to ensure that children affected by the AIDS
epidemic by the loss of one or both parents or by contracting the disease themselves remain in education
and are supported;

5.
Calls for all aid programmes to make sure that, once a patient starts a course of treatment, funding is
provided so that treatment can continue to be provided uninterruptedly, in order to prevent the increased
drug resistance that results from the interruption of treatment;

Stresses the need for the EU to fund programmes to protect women from all forms of violence that
6.
favour the spread of AIDS and to ensure that victims are afforded access to health services and the oppor-
tunity to reintegrate into society and to combat the stigma that often affects victims of such violence;

Stresses the need for an overall funding increase from donors in future years for all contraceptive
7.
supplies, including condoms for HIV prevention, to fill the gap between supplies and availability to purchase
them;

Calls on the IMF to end monetary conditions and abolish fiscal ceilings that force countries to restrict

8.
spending on public health and education;

Calls on the newly elected US Congress to overturn the Bush administration's ‘global gag rule’, which
9.
stops funding from non-US NGOs to any reproductive health organisations that counsel on abortion, and
calls on the Commission and Member States to ensure that the US government reverses its ‘global gag’ on
reproductive health spending;

10.
Repeats its concern, expressed also recently by the WHO, that some African governments are char-
ging a sales or import tax on antiretrovirals and other drugs, which then makes the drugs unaffordable to
poor communities; urges the Commission to investigate this and to encourage governments to abolish such
taxes;

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Sexual and reproductive health

11.
Stresses that the strategies needed to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic effectively must include a com-
prehensive approach to prevention, education, care and treatment and must include the technologies cur-
rently in use, improved access to treatment and the development of vaccines as a matter of urgency;

12.
Calls on the European Commission and the governments of the European Union's partner countries
to ensure that health and education, and HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health in particular, are
prioritised in Country Strategy Papers;

13.
Calls on the Commission and Member States to support programmes that combat homophobia and
break down the barriers that prevent the disease from being addressed effectively, especially in Cambodia,
China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam and across Latin America, where there is increasing
evidence of HIV outbreaks among men who have sex with other men;

Expresses concern that the UNAIDS report highlights that levels of knowledge of safe sex and HIV
14.
remain low in many countries, including those in which the epidemic has had a high impact; calls, in this
regard, for information, education and counselling on responsible sexual behaviour and effective prevention
of sexually transmitted diseases,
including HIV, to become integral components of all reproductive and
sexual health services;

15. Welcomes the inclusion of research into HIV/AIDS in the 7th Framework Programme of the Euro-
pean Community for research, technical development and demonstration activities and calls for support for
research into vaccines and microbicides, diagnostic and monitoring tools suited to the needs of developing
countries, and the study of epidemic transmission patterns and social and behavioural trends; underlines
that women must be involved in all appropriate clinical research, including vaccine trials;

Calls for investment in the development of prevention methods that may be used by women, such as

16.
microbicides, condoms for women and post-exposure prophylaxis for rape victims;

Access to medicines

17.
Encourages governments to use all means available to them under the TRIPs Agreement, such as
compulsory licences, and for the WHO and the WTO and its members to review the whole TRIPs Agree-
ment with a view to improving access to medicines;

18.
Calls on the Commission and the Member States to now recognise, five years after the adoption of
the Doha Declaration, that its application has been a failure, inasmuch as the WTO has received no notifi-
cation from an exporting or importing country of compulsory medicines nor any such notification under
the Decision of 30 August 2003 of the General Council of the WTO on implementing paragraph 6 of the
Doha Declaration;

Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take the necessary steps within the WTO, in
19.
association with the developing countries, to modify the TRIPS Agreement and its provisions based on the
Decision of 30 August 2003 (Article 31a), in order in particular to abolish the complex and time-consum-
ing procedural steps in the authorisation of compulsory licenses;

20. Meanwhile, encourages and calls on all countries facing major epidemics to make immediate use of
Article 30 of the TRIPS Agreement to access the necessary medicines without paying patent royalties to
right-owners;

21.
Calls on the Commission to increase to EUR 1 billion the EU's contribution to the global fund
against HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB, as clearly requested by the European Parliament in its above-mentioned
resolution of 2 December 2004, and on all Member States and G8 members to increase their contribution
to EUR 7 billion in 2007 and EUR 8 billion in 2008, in order to provide UNAIDS with the resources
necessary to reduce the extent of these epidemics;

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22.
Calls on the EU to clarify that it will not push for TRIPS-plus measures within Economic Partnership
Agreements and that developing countries will be guaranteed the policy space to use TRIPS flexibilities
freely;

23.
Supports the commitment undertaken by heads of state and government at the 2005 UN World
Summit calling for universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention services, treatment and care by 2010; believes,
however, that a clear plan for funding universal access should be developed and international and interim
progress targets set;

Stresses that strong public health services, including research facilities, are essential in order to fight

24.
the epidemic, and opposes the situation of conditionality leading to their liberalisation;

25.

Calls for greater investment in the development and provision of paediatric formulations for children;

Calls for support for development of regional and national generic pharmaceutical-producing indus-

26.
tries in affected areas with a view to facilitating access to affordable drugs;

*

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27.
Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of
the EU Member States and ACP countries, the IMF, the Government of the United States, the UN Secretary-
General and the heads of UNAIDS, UNDP and UNFPA.

P6_TA(2006)0527

Situation of people with disabilities

European Parliament resolution on the situation of people with disabilities in the enlarged European
Union: the European Action Plan 2006-2007 (2006/2105(INI))

The European Parliament,

— having regard to the Commission communication on the situation of disabled people in the enlarged
European Union: the European Action Plan 2006-2007 (COM(2005)0604) (Disability Action Plan),

— having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (CESE 591/2006),

— having regard to Article 13 of the EC Treaty and to Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of
the European Union on combating discrimination,
including discrimination originating in various
forms and kinds of disability, and having regard to Article 6 of the Treaty on European Union and to
Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which prohibits
all forms of discrimination,

— having regard to Article 26 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on the inte-
gration of persons with disabilities and their right to benefit from measures designed to ensure this,

— having regard to Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general frame-

work for equal treatment in employment and occupation (1),

(1) OJ L 303, 2.12.2000, p. 16.