Accueil > International > European Union : Where is the US$ 10 billion ?

European Union : Where is the US$ 10 billion ?

mercredi 10 juillet 2002

One year after the touted announcement by the G8 of the creation of the Global Fund, the contribution by rich countries, among which most EU Members, is not 10% of original targets. Where is the promised US$ 10 billion ? The Global Fund’s coffers have been almost emptied by its first disbursement round.

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Contact : Gaëlle Krikorian - tel : 658 520 872 - + 33 6 0917 7055 - galk@noos.fr

In the 12 months since the Genoa summit, 3 million people have died of aids. By 2015 if the trend is not reversed, 100 million people will be infected with HIV, 95 million of them condemned to death in the absence of treatment.

This doomsday scenario can be avoided : today we know how to fight the epidemic ; we know that HIV-infected people in developing countries are not doomed, but can be kept alive ; we know what treatments to implement. What’s required now is adequate resources in the amount of 10 billion dollars a year globally. The time has come for Europe to pay its share of this global effort : 4 billion euros per year.

Further, the EU must cease to hinder export generic versions between Southern countries. At the Doha summit, last November, WTO members finally recognized the primacy of patient rights over patent rights, and the possibility for countries to import or make generic versions of patented drugs. But now the EU is doing a U-turn on its Doha commitments, with its current WTO position seeking to block poor countries from actually importing generics by limiting possibilities to export the drugs.

The EU, as the world’s second economic and political power, shares responsibility for the 22 million deaths claimed by aids to this day and the 10,000 more daily deaths accruing to its toll. It shares responsibility for the uninterrupted spread of a disease that now threatens the world’s stability and the very survival of entire continents. The EU must immediately :

 pay its share of the $10 billion global war effort against aids, in the amount of 4 billion annual euros

 ensure as quickly as possible the free exportation of affordable generic medicines from manufacturing countries to countries which are not producing drugs, in order to respect WTO commitments in Doha.