Regulation (EC) No 1568/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2003 on aid to fight poverty diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) in developing countries
Modified by
Regulation (EC)No 2110/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 14 December 2005on access to Community external assistance, 32005R2110, December 27, 2005
Regulation (EC) No 1905/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 18 December 2006establishing a financing instrument for development cooperation, 32006R1905, December 27, 2006
Regulation (EC)No 1568/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Councilof 15 July 2003on aid to fight poverty diseases (HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria) in developing countriesTHE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 179 thereof,Having regard to the proposal from the CommissionOJ C 151 E, 25.6.2002, p. 202.,Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the TreatyOpinion of the European Parliament of 30 January 2003 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Decision of the Council of 16 June 2003.,Whereas:(1)The right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is a fundamental human right which is in line with the provisions of Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This right is being denied to over a fifth of the world's population.(2)Article 35 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union calls for a high level of human health protection in the definition and implementation of all Union policies and activities.(3)HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria cause the deaths of more than five and a half million people each year, their greatest impact being on morbidity and life expectancy in developing countries. Moreover, these diseases wipe out years of development efforts and achievements and constitute a serious concern in the long run because of their destabilising effects on society.(4)It is now widely accepted that prevention, care and treatment are mutually dependent and synergistic.(5)The failure to reduce the burden of these diseases and the evidence of their increasing impact have brought them to the centre of the development debate — as evidenced by the Declaration of Commitment of the Special Session of the UN General Assembly of June 2001, which recognises that HIV/AIDS has evolved to become a developmental emergency, and by the WHO World Health Assembly's declaration of tuberculosis and malaria as global emergencies — and have led to calls for urgent action and a series of national, regional and international initiatives, all meant to achieve the Millennium Development Goals which include clear targets to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, and to which the European Community and its Member States committed themselves.(6)The abovementioned UN Declaration of Commitment agreed, for HIV/AIDS alone, to reach by 2005 through a series of incremental steps an overall target of annual expenditure on the epidemic of between USD 7 and 10 thousand million in low and middle-income countries and countries experiencing or at risk of experiencing a rapid spread of the disease, for prevention, care, treatment, support and mitigation of the impact of HIV/AIDS, and to take measures to ensure that the resources needed are made available, particularly from donor countries and also from national budgets, bearing in mind that resources of the most affected countries are seriously limited.(7)HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria require an appropriate structural response, which is both comprehensive and coherent and which is beyond the financial and human resources of most developing countries. Because of their magnitude and cross-boundary nature, the poverty diseases are among the problems that require a systematic, coordinated response by the international community. Interventions in this area are in everyone's interest and therefore should not be viewed as a question of development aid alone.(8)The Doha Declaration on the Agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) and Public Health affirmed that "the TRIPs Agreement does not and should not prevent members from taking measures to protect public health" and that it "can and should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of WTO members' right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all" and reaffirmed "the right of WTO members to use, to the full, the provisions in the TRIPs Agreement which provide flexibility for this purpose".(9)The effectiveness of programmes to support national strategies to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria partly depends on the improved coordination of aid at both the European and the international level, notably with UN agencies, funds and programmes, including partnerships between the private, public and voluntary sectors, and on the use of procedures tailored to the specific nature of the strategies and partners concerned.(10)Public health is a public responsibility. Inadequate public policy has compounded the failure of the market to generate research and development for neglected diseases. In 2000, only 10 % of all research and development concerned diseases that are responsible for 90 % of disease in the world. The dynamics of neglect are different for different diseases, and distinct strategies to correct this imbalance are needed. Comprehensive action needs to be taken to compensate for the market failure in drug development, through increased public funding, including supporting the research and development of specific global public goods and effective methods of prevention and treatment to confront these diseases in developing countries and the introduction of appropriate incentives for the private sector to invest accordingly.(11)Actions specifically targeted at the poverty diseases must be appropriately situated within the larger context of generally improved, more effective systems of health care and health services in developing countries. Considerable improvement of these systems is vital if HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are to be combated effectively. Special efforts must be made to integrate interventions targeting the poverty diseases with actions targeting sexual and reproductive health and rights.(12)The improvement of health is a precondition for and a key element of sustainable development. For the partner countries and populations in question, the type of assistance provided for by this Regulation therefore plays a direct and tangible part in development and thus contributes significantly to the Community's development cooperation policy.(13)In the interests of coherence, all Community policies should take account of the objective of improving health and reducing poverty.(14)In its Communications to the Council and the European Parliament of 20 September 2000 and 21 February 2001 on action related to communicable diseases in the context of poverty reduction, the Commission outlined the policy principles and strategic priorities needed to enhance the effectiveness of action by the Community and the Member States in this field.(15)In its Resolutions of 10 November 2000 and 14 May 2001, the Council emphasised the gravity of the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics and the need to step up efforts to give more support at national, regional and global levels.(16)The Council, in its resolution of 14 May 2001, and the European Parliament, in its resolution of 4 October 2001OJ C 87 E, 11.4.2002, p. 244., endorsed the Community Programme for Action: accelerated action on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the context of poverty reduction, and stressed the need to ensure that adequate and appropriate human and financial resources were in place to enable effective implementation.(17)The Joint Declaration of 31 May 2001 by the Council and the Commission, the abovementioned European Parliament resolution of 4 October 2001 and the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly resolution of 1 November 2001 welcomed the proposal of the UN Secretary-General to establish a Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which came into operation on 29 January 2002, and stressed that contributions to this Fund should be additional to existing resources.(18)The abovementioned UN Declaration of Commitment, and in particular the Monterrey Conference, stipulates that increased Official Development Assistance (ODA) and debt relief schemes should be used for the benefit of better health and education outcomes. The Community and its Member States have an important role to play in exploring how increased ODA, including debt relief mechanisms, could be used more effectively as tools for combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.(19)In its Resolutions of September 1998, October 2000 and March 2002, the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly underlined the threat posed by HIV/AIDS to all development efforts and the need for rapid action.(20)This Regulation renders obsolete Council Regulation (EC) No 550/97 of 24 March 1997 on HIV/AIDS-related operations in developing countriesOJ L 85, 27.3.1997, p. 1., which should therefore be repealed.(21)This Regulation lays down, for the entire duration of the programme, a financial framework constituting the prime reference, within the meaning of point 33 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedureOJ C 172, 18.6.1999, p. 1., for the budgetary authority during the annual budgetary procedure.(22)The measures necessary for the implementation of this Regulation should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the CommissionOJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23..(23)The objective of the proposed action, namely to combat the three major communicable diseases within the context of poverty reduction, with particular reference to developing countries, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at a Community level, in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality also set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary, in order to achieve that objective,HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: