[Transfusion medicine in unified Europe]

The European institutions have been dealing with blood and blood products since 1956. A need for action currently exists with regard to the European Community's Directive 89/381/EEC. The aims of the Directive are: the elaboration of strict quality and safety criteria for medicinal products made from human blood and blood products, with special reference to preventing the transmission of viral diseases, and the demand for self-sufficiency within the European Community in human blood and blood products on the basis of voluntary and unremunerated blood donations. In May 1993, the Commission submitted a report on the implementation of this Directive. In principle, the Member States are in agreement that self-sufficiency on the basis of unremunerated donations should be achieved. Differences of opinion exist, however, with respect to the national self-sufficiency of each Member State and the definition of 'unremunerated'. Germany's standpoints enjoy greater acceptance today than they did only a few years ago; consequently, there is reason to assume that, even in the wake of developments within the European Community, the basic structures of the blood and blood products supply system in the Federal Republic of Germany will be maintained.