AIDS : the Euros are coming

50 million Euros. That’s the proposed budget for the next four years of the European Union’s Europe against AIDS programme (1), begun in 1991. Dr Bernard Legoff, the man from Brussels responsible for managing the programme, was invited to the Drierbergen meeting to discuss the programme’s objectives.

"Europe against AIDS" makes no mentions of migrants (2). This absence, however, does not mean that migrant communities have no place in the programme. In fact, the EU has already funded projects initiated and run by migrant groups.

Rather, as explains the NAZ Project’s Kim Mulji, there is no "comprehensive vision" in Brussels of the issues and priorities for migrant communities faced with HIV/AIDS. The EU’s long-term commitment to supporting autonomous migrant community-based projects remains unclear.

"Too often, migrants’ programmes are the first to go when the time comes for budget cuts," explains Mulji.

A few of the more cynical participants at Drierbergen, apparently embittered by "good intentions" not backed up by "concrete action" believe Legoff said "basically nothing."

Can Europe against AIDS be useful to migrant activists ?

For some, European funding could be crucial to starting up AIDS prevention programmes when faced with refusal or denial at the local or national level. This is especially important given some countries’ reluctance to recognize the very existence of Black/Third World communities, or the de facto exclusion of undocumented residents from health care systems. However, Europe against AIDS requires programmes to involve more than one country. Getting funding to deal with a local or national issue (which may not exist elsewhere) may therefore be unlikely (3).

The last amendments (still being debated in Brussels at press time-ed.) aim at "reinforcing" the fight against discrimination, notably through the "analysis of discriminatory situations." They also cite the need for actions "aimed at marginalized groups."

Europe against AIDS must "stimulate" AIDS prevention by "supporting exchanges, efforts to disseminate information about effective practices, and by the formation of networks," as well as through the "elaboration of broad objectives and financial help for programmes or pilot projects," and through the "collection and analysis of statistical data and health indicators" (4).

For 1996, the proposed budget amounts to 9.4 million Euros. This includes 1.2 million for epidemiological studies and for the creation of networks (compared to 0.2 million in 1995), 0.5 million for "information and sensitization among the general public and among certain target groups" (0.5 million in 1995). 0.4 million has also been alloted for "measures destined to combat discrimination" (0.5 million in 1995).

Developing Europe Against AIDS was no easy task. Euro MP Noël Mamère, who drew up the draft legislation and acted as its rapporteur, has stood by the proposed programme since the beginning. One of Mamère’s collaborators explains : "Everything was fine until the draft legislation got to the Council of Ministers. The Council turned everything upside down." Tedious amendment-by-amendment negotiations were slated to last until 18 December.

For Mamère and others from the European Parliament, the goal is to "improve the text to facilitate access" to the programme for all of the actors in the fight against AIDS, including migrants. Mamère regrets the "too-timid allusion to NGOs, to PWA associations, and their implication in this programme." He points out that the European Commission had already reinforced sections encouraging close "cooperation with NGOs", insisting that "it is absolutely essential to take into account the NGOS, given the difficult context of this social work" (6).

Back in October, Mamère had also voiced criticism of the Council of Ministers’ "reticence to accept [public health] action sui generi at the community level", with the consequence that only the "least-constraining and least-imaginative elements" of the programme are likely to emerge unscathed from the legislative process.

Mamère cites as an example "the Council’s timidity on points as important as AIDS prevention, notably the use of condoms. The word, seen as posing too many political "problems," was replaced by a euphemism... Let’s not even mention needle exchange or drug substitution... or the safety of blood products."

The new programme will go into effect 1 January 1996.

(1) The full title : Community action programme concerning the prevention of AIDS and of certain other transmissible diseases, in the context of action the area of public health.

(2) The European health programme (1995-1999) defines migrants in a parentheses in a parliamentary amendment : "...support for actions and projects for health promotion, destined specifically to ’at risk groups’ which are said to be so due to their... socio-cultural diversity (migrants...)" (Journal officiel des communautés europénnes, 15 March 1995, Santé (94/0130 (COD)), Résolution du Parlement (1ère lecture) (15.3.95-JO C89 du 10.4.95).

(3) Details on budget line B3-4304, section 9.2.c., justification for the action, cites explicitly as a selection criterion for projects the "evaluation of the Community "surplus value" of the project (transnational participation, development of a model applicable in another member state, etc...)".

(4) Details on budget line B3-4303, section 4.1, Objectif général de l’action.

(5) Amendment 0709, budget line BE-4303, Combating AIDS and certain other transmissible diseases (C4-0300/95).