Strengthening HIV prevention is critical to achieving the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Despite this commitment, the region remains off track: new HIV infections across the wider European region rose slightly between 2010 and 2025 instead of dropping by the targeted 75%, and only around 345,000 people had used PrEP at least once by 2025, just 70% of an already modest target. Uptake also remains concentrated in only a few countries.
Updating AIDS Action Europe's 2022 baseline (please also see AAE Policy Paper on HIV PrEP), this 2026 report maps PrEP access across the EU and EEA and recent developments. It draws on information from AAE member organisations, covering the availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability of PrEP.
The findings reveal significant but uneven progress. Countries including Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta have introduced national reimbursement, while seven EU Member States still offer no public coverage. Even where PrEP is reimbursed, restrictive eligibility, long waiting times, hospital-centred services, stigma and provider knowledge gaps limit access, and community-led delivery remains the exception. The report provides detailed country profiles based on data from community organisations, and sets out specific recommendations to expand equitable access and strengthen community-led prevention.
You can access the full report here: AIDS Action Europe, Report on access to PrEP in Europe, 2026
On June 12, 2026 we hosted a Webinar: is Europe PrEPared?
This webinar looked at the current state of PrEP access in Europe, reflecting on where things stand today and how the landscape has evolved since 2022.
It shared country examples, including advocacy efforts that have led to PrEP reimbursement in Cyprus and Italy. It also explored the clinical considerations and nuances of long-acting PrEP regimes based on the EACS guidelines and shared early lessons from the rollout of CAB-LA in France.
The slides and recordings are available below.
HIV Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is an effective HIV prevention tool recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for all potential exposures. However, access to and uptake of PEP remains low, resulting in missed opportunities to prevent new HIV transmissions. While HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has gained significant attention over the past decade, HIV PEP, despite being available much longer as a prevention tool than HIV PrEP, has received less interest. This is particularly concerning, as PEP offers important additional prevention benefits as part of combination prevention, especially with the expanded access to PrEP.
Rapid assessment of access to HIV Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) in EU/EEA countries
Despite its proven efficacy, access to PEP remains inconsistent across the EU/EEA. In 2024, AIDS Action Europe conducted a rapid assessment to explore the barriers and state of PEP access across Europe.
This rapid assessment of HIV PEP is based on a survey conducted by AIDS Action Europe in 2024, among its member organisations, partners, and community members on the availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability of HIV PEP in the EU/EEA Member States. The report incorporates country-specific examples and anonymized survey responses to provide a more detailed assessment of access to HIV PEP as one of the tools of combination HIV prevention, highlighting real-world challenges faced by users and its main findings serve as the basis for the AAE HIV PEP policy paper.
You can access the full report here.
AAE Policy Paper on HIV PEP examines the key challenges and gaps in accessing HIV PEP and presents a set of recommendations aimed at improving its accessibility, availability, affordability, and acceptability.
Additionally, you can find here the WHO Guidelines for HIV post-exposure prophylaxis. WHO’s updated PEP guidelines prioritize broader access to PEP, including community-based delivery and task sharing to mitigate barriers such as stigma and to ensure timely access post exposure.
