Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-07-07-Speech-3-503"
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"en.20100707.32.3-503"2
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"Madam President, I begin by saying that I am confident that the Vienna conference will help us to move forward in enforcing the rights of people to be protected against avoidable HIV infections and in gaining access to the evidence-based prevention and highly efficient treatment that so many honourable Members have referred to this evening.
I want to assure you as well that we will maintain and increase our dedication to defending these rights inside Europe, but also as part of our relations with third countries, whether they are close to our borders or on other continents. Unfortunately, I will be in the Middle East, so I will not be able to participate in the Vienna conference, but my colleague, Commissioner Dalli, who of course carries a portfolio for health and consumer policy, will represent the European Commission and will speak at the opening session of the conference.
Many services of the Commission from different sectors in health, research and development will attend and, if I may, I would like to extend an invitation to any honourable Members participating in the conference to meet with the services in the EU area where policies and actions that we take in the EU will be presented, or indeed to join the satellite sessions which are being organised by the Commission.
If I may, I will conclude my remarks by doing something that honourable Members have also done in this debate. My personal story of this starts by remembering that there has been an important football match in South Africa tonight. I recall that when I was in South Africa a few years ago, I was taken for a drive outside of Johannesburg up into the country. The person driving me was talking about the problems of HIV and AIDS in South Africa – an issue which has been taken up by many people and not least by someone I have had the privilege of working with, Annie Lennox, the singer.
As we drove through the countryside the driver said, ‘pick a village, pick any village that you like in the next hour’. We drove along and I said I saw many villages but I would choose that one. I pointed to a village, we drove into the village and he drove me to the graveyard. He said that in Africa, the tradition is that you do not lay the headstone for one year after the death of a person, so any crosses that you see, small crosses, represent people who have died within the last year. I went to this graveyard and there were hundreds of them. He said to me very simply: those are the victims of AIDS.
Honourable Members, what I saw was the tragedy of an unnecessary devastation and I pay tribute to the honourable Members who have put forward this resolution and promise to do my best to support its implementation."@en1
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