Report from the EXCUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE I.F.B.D.O.
at Léon, Spain, Saturday 20 October, 2001
Present: President:Martin Manceñido-Fuertes, Spain; Vice-president: Ezzedine Riahi, Tunesia; Treasurer
General: Robert Labadie, the Netherlands; Secretary General: Niels Mikkelsen, Denmark; Special Counselor to the
President: Peter Heimer, German Red Cross and the Continental Delegates from Africa: Farid Belouafi, Marocco and
from Europe: Pasquale Colamartino, Italy. Also present were Joaquim Moreira Alves, Portugal, with special
assigment for the Lusiphone countries; George Simigiatos with special assignment for the Balkans; and Marc Ibars
I Badia, Spain, and Claude Piotton, Suisse, from the Control Commission. Gerard Vanhove, France, was allowed to
oberserve the meeting om behalf of the vice-president, Francis Ferrua.
Absent: Vice-president: Francis Ferrua, France and the Continental Delegates from South America: Márcia
Tedesco Dalcceco, Brazil; and from North America: Jean Guy Lorrain, Québec. Also absent were Amadou Ba,
Sénégal, with special assignment for West-africa, and Daniele Peramezza, Italie from the Control
Commission.
The meeting began with greeting from the President of the I.F.B.D.O. as host of this Executive Council meeting.
The President presented a report (see Annex 1) relating to the general situation of the Federation.
After the report of the president, the Council had a discussion on meeting places and meeting times of the Executive
Council. If was confirmed by a large majority that Executive Council meetings should take place on weekends
in large cities with many international flight connections. As most of the Council members are volunteers, they
can not liberate themselves from their work during the week, and flights are generally much less expensive, when
travel is made over Saturday-Sunday.
The Executive Council also confirmed, that it had recently decided that all potential hosts for IFBDO-meetings
should be able to give the necessary information about the proposed meeting in the agreed formula for this purpose.
This formula is to be the basis for discussions in the Executive Council about future meetings.
AGENDA :
1 . Agreement on the agenda :
The agenda was accepted as proposed.
2. Finances:
The treasurer gave an updated status of our accounts. At this state the IFBDO has an annual income about 7.500
EURO, since a number of member organisations do not pay their contribution. Our running costs (travels, translations
and postage etc) are about 5.000 EURO a year. The IFBDO has a netcapital of about 30.000 EURO, but the cost of
producing the FIODS Revue are so high, that a few more editions will drain our present capital completely.
A list of contributions up to now (in EURO) was distributed (attached as Annex 2)
It was noted, that perhaps the FIODS-revue could find private sponsorship, but that the work of editing and producing
a Revue in three languages twice a year was very large compared to the possible benefits of such a magazine. So
after a lengthy discussion, it was decided that the FIODS-revue should only be published once a year (in September)
with an account of the mayor events of the I.F.B.D.O. as well as articles of scientific or general interest, The
cost will be 6 Euros for each copy, and we will try to reduce the costs by way of appropriate publicity. On the
other hand, The Secretary General will by e-mail and fax send reports from the Assemblies and the Executive Council
meetings.
At present individual member organizations sponsor different IFBDO-activities such as meetings, youth forums, edition
of FIODS-Revue and travels, and it was considered highly important, that "richer" member organizations
seeks to cover expenses of poorer member organizations. Especially membership fees to the IFBDO and, possibly,
some travel expenses connected with IFBDO-meeting could be sponsored by "richer" member organizations.
On this background the Secretary General was mandated to establish as many partnerships between rich organizations
and poor organizations as possible.
It was also decided that the President and the European Delegate shall endeavor to present projects for the European
Commission in order to obtain EU economical support for IFBDO projects.
A new edition of Medals (MIS) had been produced in 100 examples for a combined price of 4.300 EURO. The Medals
are sold for 50 EUROs a piece, and so far prepayments had arrived diligently before later distribution. Up to now
12 medals had been sold, and Québec was allowed, as an exception, to buy 12 medals in connection with the
upcoming World Congress in 2002. Otherwise, member organizations should restrain themselves to buy 4 medals a year.
3. Membership status:
The African Delegate had distributed a letter to the African members in order to obtain information on activities
of the member organizations and the status of transfusion in their countries, but very few organizations had responded
up to now. There had been renewed interest from countries such as Niger, and Cameroon, which had been urged to
present applications for membership (within the proper formulas to be returned to the Secretary General).
Questions should be addressed to Indonesia, Madagascar, Mauritania, Togo and Venezuela, if there still were proper
donor organizations, which considered themselves members of the IFBDO. All other member organizations have shown
activity within the last couple of years.
An updated list of IFBDO-addresses is attached to this report (as Annex 3). Addresses can also be found at the
homepage www.fiods.org which is now functioning again after closure in a couple of weeks. All changes of addresses
should be reported immediately to the Secretary General.
4. Follow up on our decisions in Nabeul:
Cooperation with other international organisations:
The Secretary General reported, that the IFBDOs consultative status with the Council of Europe had been
questioned during the summer by the Secretariat of the Council of Europe, but after a quick reporting, and support
from the responsible person for blood questions in the Secretariat, Karl-Friedrich Bopp, our consultative status
was retained. It is, however, important that European member organizations report to the Secretary General all
activities in their countries, which serve on promoting the ideals of the Council of Europe. (Any activity, even
the smallest ones, serving to promote the use and the respect for the Council of Europe "Guide for Preparation,
Use and Quality Assurance of Blood Components" should be taken into account)
The Secretary General had been invited to participate (as an expert) in the Global Consultation on Blood Security
(at the WHO in November 2001).
He had also participated in the ISBT-Council-meeting and in the Regional Congress of the ISBT in Paris, July
2001, where many useful contacts had been established.
The Executive Council discussed at length the development of a European Union Directive on blood security.
The interested member organizations had had a most useful meeting in Paris in June, where a common IFBDO position
had been finalized. The Secretary General had met with a member of the Cabinet of Commission David Byrne, who had
shown considerable interest in the IFBDO-position, and there had been many bilateral communications between member
organizations on this important issue.
There was general satisfaction with the decisions in the European Parliament, where all amendments proposed by
the IFBDO had been included in the Parliaments final proposals for Amendments to the Commission proposal.
But the development within the working party of the Council of Ministers gave cause to much worry, as the Belgian
presidency apparently was seeking to find a compromise between countries demanding continued paid blood and countries
fighting for non-remunerated blood.It was decided to send a letter on behalf of the IFBDO to all 15 EU Ministers
of Health and to Commissioner Byrne. A copy of this letter is included (as Annex 4)
It was also decided, that the European delegate should call for a meeting of interested European member organizations,
when the Council of Ministers had met. At this meeting the continued development of the European entity of the
IFBDO should be discussed, how, why and where ?
New IFBDO guidelines:
Peter Heimer reported, that the Guidelines were distributed -and that each member organization was allowed to translate
them from English into their own language.
Communication:
The Secretary General should distribute newsletters by e-mail, fax and internet.
Activities:
The Secretary General gave a short report from the International Youth Forum in Kliplev, Denmark in August 2001.
The evaluations made by the participants were extremely good
(see Annex 5) and his own perception was, that the Forum had been most useful for the continued involvement of
active young volunteers in national and international voluntary donor activities. He read a recommendation to the
Executive Council from the Forum's Working Group on International Questions.
The young donors demanded i. a. the continuation of the Youth Forums in 2002 and 2003, but none of the members
of the Executive Council were aware of any invitation to a possible International Youth Forum in 2002. The Executive
Council urged any candidate country to come forward as soon as possible. The Danish organization would be most
happy to render any assistance to a possible host country.
The Secretary General informed, that the web site had been relocated, and the address retained for a small fee
to be paid by the IFBDO. This meant that there would be no irritating commercials on the site in the future.
The Maltese donor organization had invited to a Mediterranean islands states meeting in Malta, which could also
be part of the continued dialogue between Africa and European. The President had been in contact with Malta, and
proposed that the meeting took place in the summer of 2002.
5. Arab as a working language of the IFBDO:
The recommendation and the formal proposal from the African group was discussed, and it was proposed that the upcoming
General Assembly in Québec in May 2002 should establish a working group, which could make a thorough study
of the Statutes and the Rules of Procedures of the IFBDO. The working group should take into account that the present
language regime already is very costly, and that the very limited resources of the IFBDO perhaps could be used
for other purposes.
6. Upcoming meetings of the Executive Council:
Quebec, 23 May 2002
Italy, October 2002, probably in Rome or Milan.
7. Plans for the IFBDO General Assembly and Congress in 2002:
An update from Jean-Guy Lorrain was received (see Annex 6)
Member organizations were reminded, that presentation of candidatures for the elections during the Congress shall
be presented in writing to the Secretary General no later than two months before the Congress, that is no later
than 22 March 2002.
It was in particular desirable that members of the Asian group would present a candidate for the election of an
Asian regional delegate well before the Congress.
8. Possible host for the General Assembly in 2003:
- An invitation might come from Aragon in Spain. It was promised, that Spain in this case would fill out the proper
formula for invitations to host meetings of the IFBDO as decided by the Executive Council.
- The Netherlands might accordingly postpone its invitations for a General Assembly to 2004.
9. Distribution of Medals:
Member organizations were reminded that candidatures must be presented to the Council of the Order the MIS (the
IFBDO-executive Council) before a medal can be awarded.
The president, as representative of the Spanish Federation, asked that a medal (one of the four for the year 2001)
was granted to Maria Teresa Gonzalez because of her extraordinary performance as a young donor, for her work at
the international level and for her exceptional number of donations in view of her age. This proposal was adopted
unanimously by the Executive Council.
10. Any other business:
The Secretary General informed that a Council meting of the ISBT will take place in Vancouver in August 2002, and
that he intended to participate as the IFBDO representative, if he was reelected as Secretary General.
He also confirmed, that neither he, nor the Lithuanian National Donor Organization, were prepared to host an upcoming
session of the ESTM in the Baltic region - and that the chair of the ESTM had been informed about this.
Niels Mikkelsen
Secretary General