In addition to Committee members, the meeting was attended by the following: Ms Gordana Rašović MD Primarius, Director of the Blood Transfusion Institute of Montenegro; Mr Cees Th. Smit Sibinga MD PhD, ID Consulting for International Development of Transfusion Medicine at the University of Groningen, Netherlands and technical team leader at the project “Implementation of European System for Blood Transfusion”; Mr Miloš Bošković, the Project Coordinator; Ms Slavojka Šuković, representative of the Ministry of Health and Ms Mirjana Praštalo Grubiša MD.

Committee Chairperson Mr Zoran Jelić reminded that the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro, at the meeting held on 24 July 2013, considered and unanimously supported the Proposal for the Law on Providing Blood and proposed it to the Parliament for adoption. Additionally, he said that that they were familiar with the fact that since 2011 the World Health Organisation had been implementing the project ”Implementation of European System for Blood Transfusion in Montenegro”, as well as that there was aspiration for establishment of a modern system for blood transfusion, harmonised with EU directives.

Mr Cees Th. Smit Sibinga MD PhD talked on application of European system for blood transfusion in Montenegro (Directive EU 2002/98/EC).

Ms Gordana Rašović MD Primarius, Director of the Blood Transfusion Institute of Montenegro, pointed out that one of the important parameters for assessment of development of health system of a country was a level of development of transfusion service, as a basic medicine branch, which provided support to all medicine branches. She spoke on the importance of transfusion medicine, requests and recommendations of EU and WHO, as well as the state of transfusion service in Montenegro by 2011.

The Law on Providing Blood would influence the following: performance of transfusion services in Montenegro to reached a high level of quality and safety standards; establishment of the preservation of public health, prevention of transmission of infectious diseases through blood, as well as provision of planned and continuous collection of blood from voluntary, non-earmarked blood donors based on fundamental principles of donation: voluntary, anonymity and free of charge.

Committee Chairperson Mr Zoran Jelić thanked to guests for the quality presentation and repeated that the Committee on Health, Labour and Social Welfare of the Parliament of Montenegro was opened for cooperation and providing help within its possibilities and competences.