European AIDS Treatment Group

European AIDS Treatment Group
Name	European AIDS Treatment Group
Formation	1992
Type	Non-governmental organization
Purpose	Advocacy, treatment literacy, research involvement
Headquarters	Brussels, Belgium
Region served	Europe
Leader title	Chair

European AIDS Treatment Group

The European AIDS Treatment Group is a pan-European network of people living with HIV and allied community organisations dedicated to treatment advocacy, research participation, and policy engagement across Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Iceland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra, San Marino, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia.

History

Founded in 1992 amid the era of intensified clinical trials and community mobilisation linked to AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and ACT UP Paris, the organisation emerged alongside contemporaneous groups such as Treatment Action Campaign, Gay Men's Health Crisis, Terrence Higgins Trust, National AIDS Trust, Comité de Lutte contre le Sida, Health and Human Rights Resource Centre and Red Ribbon. Early engagements included collaboration with major trial networks and regulatory bodies like European Medicines Agency, World Health Organization, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, International AIDS Society, Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, and national research institutes such as Institut Pasteur, Robert Koch Institute, Italian National Institute of Health, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Karolinska Institutet, Max Planck Society, Francis Crick Institute, University College London, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Université Paris-Saclay, Sapienza University of Rome.

Organisation and Governance

EATG operates as a membership-based network with governance informed by structures common to European Parliament stakeholder engagement and civil-society frameworks seen in European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control consultations, modelled on NGO governance patterns of Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International, Oxfam International, Human Rights Watch, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Save the Children, and Red Cross movements. The executive functions coordinate across advisory boards and working groups akin to committees in Council of Europe processes and liaise with research oversight entities like Ethics Committee of the World Medical Association, European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network, European AIDS Clinical Society, European Network of People Who Use Drugs, European Commission health units, and national ministries including Ministry of Health (France), National Health Service (England), Istituto Superiore di Sanità.

Advocacy and Policy Work

EATG has engaged in policy advocacy on issues intersecting with rights frameworks represented by European Court of Human Rights, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Council of the European Union directives, and human rights campaigns associated with UNAIDS strategies. Its campaigns have addressed access to antiretroviral therapy in line with initiatives from Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, World Bank health financing dialogues, and civil-society policy coalitions such as Stop AIDS. The group routinely provides expert input at fora including European Parliament Committee on Public Health, Health Ministers' meetings, UN Commission on Human Rights, Global Fund Board, G7 Summit health tracks, and pharmaceutical policy debates involving corporations like Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, AbbVie, Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson and regulatory disputes reflected in cases before European Court of Justice.

Research and Treatment Programs

EATG participates in clinical trial design, patient-reported outcome measures, and community-led monitoring alongside academic centres such as Imperial College London, King's College London, Trinity College Dublin, University of Edinburgh, Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Barcelona, University of Milan, Technical University of Munich, Heidelberg University Hospital, and laboratories like National Institute for Communicable Diseases (South Africa) in collaborative projects. Its outputs include treatment literacy tools, adherence interventions, and involvement in translational research linked to topics covered at European AIDS Clinical Society Conference, International AIDS Conference, Lancet HIV publications, Nature Medicine, The BMJ, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, and trial registries such as ClinicalTrials.gov and EU Clinical Trials Register.

Regional and Global Partnerships

EATG maintains partnerships across European civil-society networks including HIV Justice Network, ILGA-Europe, European Network Against Racism, Mental Health Europe, European AIDS Clinical Society, European Sex Workers' Rights Alliance, European Disabled People’s Organizations, European Centre for Minority Issues, and links with global actors like UNAIDS, WHO Regional Office for Europe, The Global Fund, UNITAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Doctors of the World, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and academic consortia funded by European Research Council and Horizon Europe.

Funding and Resources

Funding streams have included grants and contracts from multilateral funders such as The Global Fund, UNAIDS, European Commission, and philanthropic donors including Open Society Foundations, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ViiV Healthcare Positive Action partnerships, as well as project support from national research councils like UK Research and Innovation, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Istituto Superiore di Sanità project allocations, and occasional corporate partnerships mirrored in public–private collaborations involving Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare. Financial oversight aligns with standard practices used by Charity Commission for England and Wales and regulatory reporting to entities such as European Anti-Fraud Office where applicable.

Category:HIV/AIDS organizations