share
May 12, 2026 · 11 min read

Joint Statement – Europe’s unfinished epidemics: sustaining community-led HIV response in times of crisis

Over the past months, partners across the HIV field have come together under the Coalition for a European HIV Response (C4EHR) to develop the Joint Statement Europe’s Unfinished Epidemics: Sustaining Community-Led HIV Response in Times of Crisis. The statement highlights a critical moment for Europe: while the tools to end HIV as a public health threat exist, political commitment and sustained investment are weakening. Europe remains off track to meet agreed targets, and community-led responses are increasingly undermined, with rising infections, preventable deaths, and widening inequalities as a result.

The statement calls for urgent EU action, including a renewed HIV Action Plan, sustainable funding for community-led programmes, and stronger EU leaership globally. 

It has already been endorsed by more than 100 organisations and over 200 individuals, reflecting strong and growing support across the region. Endorsements remain open: organisations and individuals are invited to add their support here: https://cloud.aidshilfe.de/apps/forms/s/MkJK6Wnr39pMzJJAHYj9r6ZD 

Read the Joint Statement below.

Europe stands at a turning point. The tools to end HIV as a public health threat are available, but the political will and sustained investment required to use them are weakening.

Despite progress, Europe remains off track to meet agreed targets on reducing new HIV acquisitions, morbidity, and societal enablers. At the same time, community-led programmes – central to prevention, testing, treatment access, and human rights – are being undermined by shrinking funding and declining policy attention.

The consequences are immediate: rising new HIV acquisitions, preventable deaths, and widening inequalities across and within Member States.

This trajectory is not inevitable. It is the result of policy choices.

We, the undersigned, call on the European Parliament, the European Commission, and Member States to take urgent action to safeguard and strengthen Europe’s HIV response through sustained political commitment, together with ongoing and predictable funding for community led action.

1. Renewed EU Action Plan on HIV and other communicable diseases

We call on the European Parliament to urge the European Commission to develop and implement, without delay, a renewed EU Action Plan on HIV and other communicable diseases.

This Action Plan should:

  • align with the Global AIDS Strategy 2026–2031;
  • set clear targets, timelines, and accountability mechanisms;
  • support Member States in achieving the 30–80–60 community leadership targets; and
  • ensure meaningful and systematic involvement of civil society.

It must recognise community-led, integrated services as a core component of effective health systems and support enabling legal and policy environments that address stigma, discrimination, and punitive laws.

2. Sustainable EU funding for community-led HIV response

We call on the European Commission to ensure sustainable, predictable, and accessible EU funding for community-led HIV responses within EU4Health and the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034).

EU financing should:

  • include a balanced mix of operating, action, and project grants;
  • ensure resources reach community-led organisations, including through flexible funding mechanisms;
  • support long-term sustainability through social contracting and domestic co-financing; and
  • safeguard funding for ongoing epidemics alongside investments in emergency preparedness. 

Community-led systems must be recognised and resourced as integral to public health delivery.

3. Strengthened EU leadership in the global HIV response

We call on the EU to and its Member States to exercise global leadership by championing the adoption of an ambitious 2026 UNGASS Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS that fully and unequivocally reflects, and is aligned with the goals, targets, and principles of the Global AIDS Strategy 2026–2031, while ensuring coherence and alignment across internal EU policies.

This includes:

  • prioritising human rights, gender equality, and community leadership;
  • supporting integrated, community-led responses in partner countries; and
  • strengthening investment in research and innovation, including participatory-based research. 

In a context of shrinking global resources, the EU must scale up predictable financing, reinforce multilateral cooperation, and support enabling environments for civil society.

Background

The European Union is at a critical juncture in its HIV response. 

Despite repeated commitments to ending the HIV epidemic as a public health threat[1], and commitments to targets in the UN 2016 and 2021 Political Declarations on HIV[2], and the Global AIDS Strategy (2021-2026)[3], Europe remains significantly off-track. 

Recent ECDC data highlights the scale of the gap:

  • new HIV acquisitions have increased by 5% instead of declining by 75%;
  • AIDS-related deaths have risen by 37%; and
  • only 70% of people living with HIV have achieved viral suppression, far below the 86% target. 

Behind these numbers are people – and growing inequalities between and within Member States 

Similar structural gaps affect responses to other communicable diseases, including viral hepatitis.

Community leadership – a key pillar to the successful response

Community-led organisations are essential to effective HIV responses.Yet progress in supporting and measuring community leadership remains insufficient, despite clear global commitments to the 30–80–60 targets.

According to data from ECDC[4], the EU/EEA HIV epidemic mostly affects key populations[5], their partners, and other marginalised groups such as migrant communities or women, especially where these identities intersect. These groups continue to face structural barriers, including stigma, criminalisation, and discriminatory policies, that restrict access to prevention, testing, and treatment. This includes limited access to the preventive benefits of treatment itself, known as Treatment as Prevention (TAsP), whereby people living with HIV who adhere to their treatment and maintain an undetectable viral load, do not transmit the virus. The result is later diagnosis, poorer health outcomes, and widening health inequalities. Significant disparities also persist between Member States, including in access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

Community-led organisations play a critical role in addressing these gaps. They deliver prevention, testing, treatment, and care services to populations underserved by traditional health systems, often with high levels of efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Recognising this, community leadership is identified as a core priority in the Global AIDS Strategy 2026-2031. The meaningful involvement of communities at all stages of the response (from planning and implementation to monitoring and evaluation) is essential to achieving effective and equitable outcomes.

Global targets commit to:

  • 30% of testing, treatment, and care services;
  • 80% of combination prevention for key populations; and
  • 60% of advocacy activity for enabling legal and policy environments

being delivered by community-led organisations.

Achieving these targets requires sustained political commitment, adequate financing, and enabling legal and policy frameworks.

Urgency

This situation is compounded by recent funding decisions at both EU and global levels.

The EU4Health 2025 Work Programme has removed HIV-specific funding calls and reduced support for regional health networks, while prioritising emergency preparedness. At the same time, global funding reductions – including cuts to PEPFAR, USAID, and contributions to WHO, UNAIDS and the Global Fund – are weakening HIV responses in neighbouring regions, with direct implications for the European Union.

This moment demands more than concern. It demands leadership.

Funding cuts are already undermining the systems that deliver results. Prioritising emergency preparedness while neglecting ongoing epidemics is a false economy that will cost lives and reverse hard-won progress. 

But the path forward is clear.

With sustained political commitment, predictable investment, and a renewed focus on community-led responses, Europe can still change course and meet its commitments.

The question is no longer whether this is possible. It is whether the European Union will act.

Footnotes

[1] Sustainable Development Goal 3.3 End the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases

[2] Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: On the Fast Track to Accelerating the Fight against HIV and to Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030; Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: Ending Inequalities and Getting on Track to End AIDS by 2030

[3] Global AIDS Strategy – End Inequalities. End AIDS. 2021-2026

[4]HIV/AIDS Surveillance in Europe 2025 – 2024 data

[5]Key populations are: gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who use drugs, sex workers, and people in prison and other closed settings – according to the definition of UNAIDS.

About the Coalition for a European HIV Response (C4EHR)

The Coalition for a European HIV Response (C4EHR) brings together civil society, community-led and community-based organisations and networks, as well as academic and scientific associations across Europe with a shared mission: ending HIV as a public health threat in Europe and beyond. We advocate for the political commitment and sustained investment that communities need and deserve,  because the tools to end HIV exist, and the only thing standing in the way is political will.

This Joint Statement is endorsed by:

(last update: 4 May 2026)

Organisations

  1. Revers, Russian Federation
  2. Alternative Fundation, Hungary
  3. Youth view, Tajikistan
  4. Women and Modern World Social Charitable Center – CWMW, Azerbaijan
  5. Fundacja Edukacji Społecznej/ Foundation for Social Education, Poland
  6. Queer Geography, z. s., Czechia
  7. Non-profit Partnership “Alliance for Public Health”, Republic of Moldova
  8. Center for Information and Counseling on Reproductive Health – Tanadgoma, Georgia
  9. ARAS -Roamanian Association against SIDA, Romania
  10. Estonian Network PLWHIV, Estonia
  11. Plateforme Prévention Sida, Belgium
  12. UK Community Advisory Board (UK-CAB), United Kingdom
  13. Juventas, Montenegro
  14. menZDRAV Foundation, Ukraine
  15. HERA – Health Education and Research Association, North Macedonia
  16. Georgian Harm Reduction Network, Georgia
  17. ALLIANCE.GLOBAL, Public Organization, Ukraine
  18. Positive Council Switzerland, Switzerland
  19. PRAKSIS, Greece
  20. Sens Pozitiv Association, Romania
  21. PULS Comunitar, Republic of Moldova
  22. Dutch Association of People with HIV (Hiv Vereniging), Netherlands
  23. AIDS Solidarity Movement, Cyprus
  24. Dignity Humanitarian NGO, Armenia
  25. Albanian Association of PLWHA, Albania
  26. Positive Women, Ukraine
  27. Association for Preventive Healthcare “Jeden Świat” (Cracow, Poland), Poland
  28. HIV i-Base, United Kingdom
  29. Brescia Checkpoint ETS, Italy
  30. Charitable Organization “100%LIFE”, Ukraine
  31. Aids Hilfe Wien, Austria
  32. www.herstelcollectief.nl, Netherlands
  33. Lambda Warszawa, Poland
  34. UTOPIA_BXL, Belgium
  35. NGO “Podruga”, Kyrgyzstan
  36. COMITÉ CIUDADANO ANTISIDA DE LA COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA, Spain
  37. Частный благотворительный фонд “Шапагат”, Kazakhstan
  38. PREKURSOR Foundation, Poland
  39. Association SKUC, Slovenia
  40. Red Ribbon Istanbul, Türkiye
  41. AIDS-Fondet (The Danish AIDS Foundation), Denmark
  42. Háttér Society, Hungary
  43. APOYO POSITIVO, Spain
  44. Positivo – Grupos de apoio e Auto Ajuda, Portugal
  45. Human Rights and Public Health NGO, Armenia
  46. CALCSICOVA , Spain
  47. Associação Abraço – Associação de apoio a pessoas que vivem e/ou são afetadas pelo VIH/SIDA, Portugal
  48. Stowarzyszenie PODWALE SIEDEM, Poland
  49. Bordeaux Ville sans Sida, France
  50. MUMC+, The Netherlands, Netherlands
  51. Association of HIV/ AIDS Affected Women and their Families Demetra, Lithuania
  52. OPUS diversidades, Portugal
  53. PRIMUS – Center for the Development of Preventive Intersectoral Services, Serbia
  54. Fondazione LILA Milano ETS, Italy
  55. Lausanne University Hospital, Department of Infectious Diseases, Switzerland
  56. Associação Grupo Aids: Apoio, Vida, Esperança, Outside Europe
  57. SERES, Portugal
  58. Lambda, col·Hector LGTB+ per la diversitat sexual, de gènere i familiar, Spain
  59. “Access to Justice” non-Governmental Organization, Armenia
  60. PHESTA public health consultancy, Netherlands
  61. GAT – Grupo de Ativistas em Tratamentos – Portugal, Portugal
  62. INSERM, France
  63. Mann-O-Meter e.V., Germany
  64. Schwulenberatung Berlin gGmbH, Germany
  65. Aidshilfe Saar e.V., Germany
  66. Aidshilfe Neumünster e.v , Germany
  67. ISKORAK, Croatia
  68. Katte e.V., Potsdam, Germany
  69. OIO , Germany
  70. AIDS-Hilfe Chemnitz e.V., Germany
  71. Positiiviset – HivFinland , Finland
  72. Aids-Hilfe Wolfsburg e. V., Germany
  73. AIDS-Hilfe Trier e.V., Germany
  74. Aidshilfe Köln e.V., Germany
  75. Braunschweiger AIDS-Hilfe e.V., Germany
  76. Aidshilfe NRW e.V., Germany
  77. Aids-Hilfe Konstanz e.V., Germany
  78. Pozitif Dayanışma (Positive Solidarity), Türkiye
  79. LILA Nazionale OdV, Italy
  80. NADIR ETS, Italy
  81. HILFE-FÜR-JUNGS e.V., Germany
  82. Aidshilfe Oberhausen e. V., Germany
  83. Aidshilfe Sachsen-Anhalt e.V., Germany
  84. Aidshilfe Sachsen-Anhalt Nord e.V., Germany
  85. AIDS-Hilfe Marburg e.V., Germany
  86. AIDS-Hilfe Nürnberg-Erlangen-Fürth e.V., Germany
  87. Africa Advocacy Foundation, United Kingdom
  88. Mi-Health Europe- Stichting Africa Advocacy Foundation, Netherlands
  89. Positiv e.V., Germany
  90. aidshilfe leipzig e.V., Germany
  91. AIDS-Hilfe Weimar und Ostthüringen e.V., Germany
  92. TRT-5 CHV, France
  93. CeGIDD at the University Hospital of Guadeloupe, France
  94. Association Rive, La Réunion, France
  95. CPIE MASCARIN, France
  96. AFRIQUE AVENIR, France
  97. Checkpoint Paris, France
  98. Arcat, France
  99. RELAIS VIH, France
  100. GROSOL, France
  101. Sidaction, France
  102. Aids-Hilfe Dresden e.V., Germany
  103. Funders Concerned About AIDS, Europe
  104. Planning Familial de l’Isère, France
  105. Aidshilfe Hamm e.V., Germany
  106. Fédération Addiction, France
  107. Association de Lutte Contre le Sida et pour la Santé Sexuelle, France
  108. Comité de Coordination Régionale de la Santé Sexuelle Ile-de-France Nord-Ouest, France
  109. The Young People+ Initiative, Europe
  110. Association ASETIS, France
  111. SIDA STUDI, Spain
  112. Association ENVIE, France
  113. Free Clinic – GIG Health promotion in injecting drug use Flanders, Belgium
  114. CoReSS Guadeloupe St Martin St Barthélemy, France
  115. L’Isola di Arran ODV, Italy
  116. Aidsfonds, Netherlands
  117. Aidshilfe Wiesbaden e.V., Germany
  118. Life Quality Improvement Organisation Flight, Croatia
  119. Eurasian Key Populations Coalition, Armenia
  120. Aidshilfe Bielefeld e.V., Germany
  121. AIDS-Hilfe Lausitz e.V., Germany
  122. Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), Hungary
  123. Aidshilfe Unterland e.V., Germany