European Parliament adopts resolution

IK – 05/2021

Currently, a total of 38 million people worldwide are living with HIV. Yet, in 2019, nearly half of them (about 12 million people) did not have access to life-saving anti-retroviral therapy. The coronavirus pandemic has created further challenges to the AIDS response. In part, previous measures have been undone by the crisis. Against this background, on May 6, 2021, the European Parliament tabled a resolution on accelerating progress and tackling inequalities so that AIDS no longer poses a threat to public health by 2030.

Demands of the European Parliament

MEPs call on the EC to address AIDS as a global public health crisis and to speed up all efforts to combat the disease. The resolution focuses on the following key areas: expansion of preventive and curative measures as well as securing financial resources.

Expansion of comprehensive care

MEPs believe that international cooperation and development work, especially with Africa, is necessary to build strong and resilient health systems. The aim is to ensure general and, above all, comprehensive health care for HIV treatment. In this context, the resolution also explicitly addresses the low treatment rate of children living with HIV and access to HIV services for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

The expansion of health research is also seen as a priority: EU member states are called upon to promote real-time data collection and to facilitate accessible, affordable diagnostic, therapeutic and vaccine candidates for HIV as well as for other poverty-related and neglected infectious diseases.

Access to all areas of life

Furthermore, the social stigmatisation of people infected with HIV or suffering from AIDS is to be combated. They should also be given access to sexual and reproductive health, equitable and affordable health care, quality education, the labour market as well as all areas of public life.

In order to address AIDS/HIV as a global challenge, the European Parliament called for sufficient funding to be secured and for increased investment to be made in UNAIDS and the Global Fund for fighting AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

What's next?

MEPs have their sights set on a United Nations meeting on HIV/AIDS as the next step in implementing the resolution. This will be held from June 8 - 10, 2021. There, the forward-looking measures and financial commitments of the resolution are to be included as binding objectives in the policy statement.