RUBSI membership of the HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum (CSF)
01/11/2007
It is a great honor for RUBSI to have been recently accepted as a member of the European HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum for a three year term valid until the 31st August 2010.
The Civil Society Forum was established by the HIV/AIDS Think Tank in January 2005 and is comprised of NGOs and other civil society organizations from all over Europe. The aim of the Forum is to be a venue for informal consultation with the Civil Society. The Forum meetings are organized in close co-operation with AIDS Action Europe (AAE) and European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) as civil society representatives in the Think Tank.
The role of the Forum is to provide advice and identify issues of relevance to the Think Tank and the European Commission services relating to the implementation of EU HIV/AIDS policy. This includes but is not limited to comment on proposed policy proposals, policy activities, implementation of policy and priorities in the annual work plan of the Public Health Action Programme. RUBSI was chosen to be one of the 40 members of the Forum among more than 70 applicants.
The first official meeting of the Forum took place in the European Commission Building in Brussels on 14-15 November 2007. The meeting was addressed by the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou, who discussed with the participants future steps towards forming an EU policy on HIV/AIDS.