Brussels, 20/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has approved the draft of its rapporteur Giusepe Nistico (Forza Italia), during the plenary session in Strasbourg. The joint draft directive establishes quality and safety standards for collecting, inspecting, processing, conserving and distributing human blood and blood products. At the beginning of the week, the Council approved the new text and the directive that modifies that of 2001 will therefore be able to enter into force.
Conciliation procedures opened last September, when the Council pointed out that it was unable to accept the eight amendments adopted by the EP in its second reading. Most amendments sought to introduce editorial changes but two modifications poses problems to several Member States because they were incompatible with the organisation of their health systems or blood collection services. The greatest difficulty resulted from a modification that would have made the presence of a doctor compulsory during the medical examination of blood donors before any giving of blood. Several Member States considered that the presence of health professional would be sufficient. The compromise obtained at the conciliation committee on 8 November calls for the presence of a "qualified health care professional".