Public health: prevention of AIDS and other communicable diseases, Community action programme 1996-2000

In its Opinion the Committee suggested that this proposal should be part of a comprehensive public health programme (in accordance with Article 129 of the Treaty on European Union) with the aim of coordinating the various specific programmes and ensuring greater consistency between them. It also called for a management committee to be set up, rather than an advisory committee, and stressed that the management committee should include representatives of regional and local authorities. To this end, it urged the Commission to give greater encouragement to the Member States to set up national coordination committees with all the interested partners (including regional ones). The Committee also put forward specific comments on the measures to be implemented: it called for the role of schools to be strengthened, better prevention of AIDS transmission among groups at risk, safer blood transfusions, and social and psychological support for people with HIV. The Committee drew particular attention to discrimination against people with AIDS and recommended that measures be put in place to combat such discrimination.