AIDS activists demand more EU funds

ACTIVISTS trashed the European Commission's exhibition stand at the world AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain, yesterday demanding the European Union contribute more to a global fund against AIDS.

They spray-painted “Shame” on the counter and on an EU flag, scattered leaflets on the floor and plastered the booth with stickers saying “Where is the $10 billion?”

Wealthy nations have pledged $2.8bn to the global fund against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis launched last year by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, but it is only a fraction of the $10bn goal.

“In the last two years, nothing has changed in terms of the resources given to the fight against AIDS,” said a spokesman for the protesters from activist group Act-Up Paris.

It had been shown that wide-scale treatment for people with AIDS was feasible, he said. “Now all that is required is for actual resources to come on line...so that we can implement those treatments and turn back the epidemic,” he said.

“The rich countries...don’t commit remotely the amount of resources that they can and must commit.”

He said the EU should be paying in $4bn to the fund but had only contributed some $200 million.

A European Commission spokesman in Brussels said the Commission had pledged 120m ($119.4m) to the global fund this year but had no figures for separate donations by member states.

Activists have been staging daily protests at the international AIDS conference to demand treatment for millions of people with the AIDS virus in developing countries who cannot afford the sophisticated antiretroviral drugs that could save their lives.

Security guards have stood by and not interfered with the protests.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was the target of demonstrators on Tuesday. Activists drowned out his speech in a protest at what they see as an inadequate US contribution to the UN’s global fund.

In a statement, Act-Up Paris accused the EU of doing a U-turn on previous commitments on access to medicines for poor countries.

International rules on drug patents have come into conflict with developing countries’ wishes to produce generic versions of AIDS drugs that would be affordable for their people.

Act-Up Paris said the EU’s position in the World Trade Organisation sought to block poor countries from importing generics by limiting possibilities to export the drugs.