Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-01-Speech-3-134"
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".
Mr President, I too would like to thank the Commission for its explanation, although I hope that Commissioner Kyprianou will, before long, be able to come here with more news, more hard facts and more specific intentions on the part of the Commission. I should, above all, like to thank Human Aids for the fact that during this year’s World AIDS Day, it will be focusing on women and girls and HIV/AIDS. There are sound reasons for doing so.
The figures speak for themselves. AIDS is increasingly taking on a feminine face; the number of women infected with HIV/AIDS is rising at a terrifying rate. So who are those women? Are they women displaying serious risk behaviour, or are they women who have been sexually active with too many partners? Not at all. In most cases, they are ordinary, often young, women who are very vulnerable on account of their sex. They are often married, they are very often faithful to their partners and are mothers of children. It may be useful to inform the Vatican of the fact that 88% of the Ugandan girls and women who are HIV positive are married and have not had partners other than the man with whom they share their lives. These women are vulnerable on account of the social inequality and the lack of access to education and healthcare, as well as on account of the fact that they do not have their own incomes and are often incapable of negotiating about their own sexuality.
For those women, the ABC prevention method – Abstinence, Being faithful and Condoms
is anything but sufficient. In order to combat AIDS effectively, we need more than simply ABC. We need the whole alphabet. To begin with, I should like to add the letter M for microbicides and the letter V for vaccines, because these open up promising prospects for women who may finally gain control over their own prevention methods. In my view, it is crucial for the European Union to invest more in research and development into those new products. I should also like to add the letter E for empowerment, because the fight against AIDS is simply impossible without reinforcing the rights of women and without combating violence against them.
Commissioner, I am therefore very much looking forward to the global action plan which the Commission will be presenting to us in the spring of 2005, because a global approach is indeed what we need. It is, of course, not enough that well-meaning Commissioners such as yourself or Commissioner Michel should be committed to the fight against AIDS. This issue must also be dealt with by the Commissioners for Equal Opportunities, External Trade, Justice and also naturally by the Commissioner for the Budget. I hope that the European Union will continue to take the lead in order to mobilise more financial resources for the fight against HIV/AIDS, but also to improve cooperation among the Member States on the basis of a coherent multiannual plan. I regret that the Dutch Presidency is not present here today, because I would like to pay tribute to the courage with which it has put this matter on the agenda. I also think that Europe should do more to increase the financial commitments. By 2008, we should be able to treble our financial commitments, in my view.
Finally, it appears to me essential that women be personally involved in drawing up a global plan of this kind – especially women and girls who live with HIV/AIDS, for they are not only its victims, but also vital partners in working out a sound policy. I therefore hope that the Commission will include them in its stakeholders’ platform for the compilation of this global plan."@en1
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