The aim of the WHO/GPA Special Project was to help different countries of central and eastern Europe (CCEE), the Newley Independent States (NIS) and theRussian Federation design an appropriate and cost effeicient surveillance system for HIV infection according to WHO/GPA recommendations and according totheir countries' specific needs. Two intercountry workshop on surveillance of HIV with specific objecties to review basic epidemiological principles underlying HIV surveillance, and to develop draft protocols for HIV surveillance or revise or further develop the existing protocols for HIV surveillance were implemented during 1995. Participants from Albania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia attended the first one in Bratislava and participants from Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldona, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine attended the second one in Minsk. Representatives from all invited countries accepted WHO/GPA recommendations for HIV surveillance and felt confident to be able to implement proposed surveillance systems intheir countries, however, not all considered immediate widespread implementation feasble. Support to further development and strengthening of methodologically sound and effective surveillance systems for HIV and integration with the surveillance systems forsexually transmitted diseases should be one of the priorities for WHO and UNAIDS.