“Europe Against AIDS”? The European Community Response to AIDS and the Road Towards a European Health Policy, 1981-1996

Abstract

When AIDS appeared in Europe in 1981, the European Community had no legal competence in the field of health. However, as all Member States detected AIDS-cases, and as the fear of the pandemic rose in European public opinions, the Community, which was experiencing an intense dynamic of integration, was under pressure to “do something” to help Europeans face the crisis. This paper analyses how, under these conditions, the European Community (European Union after 1992) invented ways to become a player in the fight against AIDS and develop an ambitious and unprecedented AIDS policy. It argues that in doing so, and benefiting from an unexpected consensus between its members on fundamental issues related to the disease, the Community made inroads towards what could later become an integrated European health policy. However, it also experienced enduring obstacles to achieving such an ambition.