Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-05-Speech-3-432"
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"en.20010905.15.3-432"2
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"Mr President, there are two principal issues here: one is an adequate supply and the second is a safe supply. For the hundreds and thousands of haemophiliacs and all those patients with the whole range of immunodeficiency diseases, these are life threatening issues which they are faced with on a daily basis. While I agree – and no one disagrees in this House – that we must foster a culture of voluntary donations as the norm, as the ethos, in all our Member States, I plead with this House not to specifically exclude paid donations. Let us not exclude them for the rare blood groups and for the very scarce plasma and plasma products if they are needed to pay to ensure adequacy of supply.
It is not a question of ‘if there is a shortage of supply’. There is one already. Today 40-50% of plasma products used each year by European patients come from plasma donors who are compensated for their time and inconvenience for this lengthy process. These plasma products, particularly in the UK and Ireland, are largely imported from the US from paid donors.
The amendments to this directive, which were voted and passed by the Environment Committee, will have a major impact on public health. They will prevent the remuneration of donors in any circumstances and preclude importation of plasma and plasma products from paid donors. There is no longer any public health justification for imposing an absolute requirement for all donations to be non-remunerated. This was the case in the seventies and eighties but it is no longer with our screening and sterilisation process.
Commissioner Byrne, I would like to put a question specifically to you and maybe you could answer it in your reply: do the amendments which were passed in the Environment Committee violate EU law, particularly various sections of Article 152? I draw your attention to Article 152(5) which prevents Community action from affecting national provisions on the donation of blood. Do the amendments actually violate EU law? The doctors’ organisations, the patients’ organisations throughout Europe are pleading with us not to specifically exclude paid donations.
I congratulate Mr Nisticò on his excellent work and I commend Amendment No 75 which gets the balance right."@en1
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