Recent News
G8 Summit in Gleneagles
6-8 July 2005
At the annual G8 summit in Gleneagles, the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barrosso pledged to give over € 1billion to developing countries in support of their trading capacity. In addition the countries also pledged to reduce mortality amongst women and children and continue to try and halt the spread of HIV/AIDS and Malaria. For more information and to read the final communiqué (SRH issues from p.21) click here.
BOND International Development.
Progress Evaluation of Sub-Saharan Africa
Five years after world leaders came together in New York to draw up a Millennium Declaration and identify the 8 MDG's, how close are countries to achieving them? Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the worst candidates. In fact in the past few weeks growing concern was been voiced by the international community that Sub-Saharan Africa is not likely to meet any of the goals by 2015. HIV/AIDS is still the leading cause of death in these regions, claiming more lives than Malaria and Tuberculosis combined. Nearly half of the population is still living on $1 a day, compared to 3% in North Africa. Maternal and infant mortality is still a key issue. For more information, see: http://www.europa.eu.int /comm /development
EU Financial Perspective 2007-2013
The Commission and the “Net Contributors” to the EU budget have been far from seeing eye to eye regarding the financial perspective for 2007-2013. Requests by the Commission to increase the EU budget to nearly 1000 billion euros, are being meet by relative hostility from six of the member states who want reduce EU expenditure. More information.
Luxembourg says yes to EU constitution
10 July 2005
Luxembourg has agreed to the new European Constitution, with more than half of its citizens 56.52 percent voting in favour of the treaty, and 43.48 percent against. http://www.euobserver.com/?aid=19536&rk=1
World Population Day
11 July 2005
On World Population Day (11 July), Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, and Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director, made a joint statement on some of the key issues; gender equality, maternal mortality and Aids. Find out more.
HIV/Aids in Europe
On the 31st of May a roundtable addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS within Europe was held in Brussels, co-organized by The Centre for Health Ethics and Society (CHES) and the European Red Cross. The roundtable came to the conclusion that concrete action within the field of HIV/AIDS prevention methods was still lacking regardless of the issues being widely discussed. To find out more about the key issues and the outcome of the conference please go to: http://madariaga.coleurop.be/ches/
The European Men's Health Forum (EMHF) has published a survey on people living with HIV/AIDS. Participants were asked to assess their quality of life since they had contracted the virus. Interestingly gender differences seem to play an important role. HIV positive men on average reported a higher satisfaction with their quality of life than women. To view the survey in more detail, please follow the link:
http://www.emhf.org/index.cfm/item_id/220
Or contact: Ludovic Lacaine, European Affairs, European Men's Health Forum
ludovic.lacaine@emhf.org
Global Fund Appeals to MEPs and European NGOs
Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria delivered a statement before the European Parliament Development Committee on 14 July, expressing concern about the $700 million shortfall in funding that will affect Round 5 Global Fund applicants. Feachem asked whether unused European Union EDF funds could be transferred to help fill this gap and called for further increases in EU funding for 2006-7. British MEP Glenys Kinnock asked for his support on several issues, including for the linkages between sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV/AIDS. Feachem said he hopes that the case for linking SRHR and HIV/AIDS will be made loudly at the UN Summit in September. Feachem met later with DSW and other European NGOs working in the field of SRHR and HIV/AIDS and asked for their continued support for European funding for The Global Fund. For additional information, contact Karen Hoehn at Karen.hoehn@dsw-hannover.de.
Brussels-based NGOs Comment on EC Thematic Strategy on Human and Social Development
Six Brussels-based NGOs, including DSW, provided comments last week to the European Commission (EC) for its consultation on the draft Communication on an EC thematic strategy on human and social development. Comments focused on the health theme and provided specific suggestions for how to strengthen SRHR and HIV/AIDS language in the Communication. For additional information, contact Karen Hoehn at Karen.hoehn@dsw-hannover.de or Joyce Haarbrink at joyce.haarbrink@mariestopes-org.be.
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