Madam, - This is a critical moment in the history of HIV/AIDS. More political will, more financial resources and more attention are being paid to this killer disease than ever before. Yet more people than ever are dying of AIDS and infection rates continue to increase.
With over 34 million people infected with HIV this pandemic is quickly becoming the greatest threat to fighting world poverty and underdevelopment. HIV/AIDS has been responsible for over 12 million orphans in Africa alone. Advances in poverty reduction cannot be made in the absence of an urgent, resourced and sustained response to HIV/AIDS.
Both the Irish and Netherlands governments have a strong policy commitment to addressing HIV/AIDS and recognise it as a major public health and development challenge in poorer countries. Ireland has put HIV/AIDS centre stage during its EU presidency. On June 30th Ireland will hand over the presidency to the Dutch who will continue to ensure that HIV/AIDS receives the global attention it deserves.
In February, a high-level ministerial conference in Dublin highlighted the growing rate of new HIV infections in Europe and Central Asia. It adopted a framework for action, the Dublin Declaration, which will help countries to develop strategies to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS; work to ensure strong leadership, a focus on prevention, and support for those already affected by HIV; and develop the necessary broad partnerships needed to fight this disease on all fronts. Further meetings were held in Ireland on the role of parliamentarians in the fight against HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and the issue of HIV/AIDS in the context of humanitarian crises. All of these meetings provided forums for high-level policy dialogue within the EU member-states. Issues raised during these meetings will be brought forward through subsequent presidencies of the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the UK.
Today, at a conference held in Dublin and co-hosted by Ireland and the Netherlands, the EU will make considerable progress in adopting an action plan to prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS. A fortnight ago at the G8 Summit in Georgia the establishment of a global HIV/AIDS vaccine enterprise was called for: a virtual consortium to enhance co-ordination in the search for an effective HIV vaccine against the virus. Today we will formulate what Europe can contribute to such a global effort. At our conference, "New Preventive Technologies: Providing new options to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS", we will endorse this enterprise and agree on priority actions to improve and speed up the development of new preventive technologies.
The Netherlands presidency will continue to focus on the fight against HIV/AIDS as part of the fight against poverty. The EU needs to ensure that international agreements are met, including the agenda of the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994. That is one of the priorities of the Dutch Presidency.
AIDS affects all spheres of human activity - social, political, economic. Therefore the Dutch presidency will ensure that AIDS is on everyone's agenda, not just that of the medical experts alone. On the political agenda, for example we will work to mobilise political leadership in developing countries. We also need to engage more with the private sector, not only in research and distribution of contraceptives, microbicides and vaccines, but also in programmes for employees and the communities in which they live. Therefore, HIV/AIDS will be on the agenda of an international conference on corporate social responsibility hosted by the Dutch Presidency in November. - Yours, etc.,
TOM KITT, Minister of State for Development Co-operation and Human Rights, Dublin 2; AGNES VAN ARDENNE, Minister for Development Co-operation, The Netherlands;