On February 8 2007 the Eustite Project Coordinator was invited to attend the first Competent Authorities meeting for Directive 2004/23/EC. The meeting took place in Brussels at the European Commission premises and it was chaired by the head of unit of Health Measures, Directorate General SANCO.

The meeting had the objective of bringing together all Competent Authorities nominated in each Member State for an overall discussion on the application of Directives 2004/23/EC, 2006/17/EC and 2006/86/EC. The meeting included a presentation of Competent Authorities roles and responsibilities, an analysis of the status of transposition in MS, and discussion of some specific issues related to the three Directives such as the notification of adverse events and reactions, import/export and the European coding system. Some European funded projects were also invited to report on their activities in support of the application of the Directives. In this context, Eustite was invited to present the activities that will be developed over the three years in connection with the Directives requirements. The project coordinator illustrated the activities in place to draft common guidelines for tissue establishment inspections, the role of establishing a system for the classification and reporting of adverse events associated with tissue and cell transplantation and the aim of designing a training course model for inspectors. Dr Fehily informed the meeting that a survey on inspection systems will be soon distributed to all Competent Authorities as a follow up of the EC questionnaire and with the aim of having a final clear picture of how existing systems are organised and how they function in detail. Both the project coordinator and the EC representatives kindly invited the floor to cooperate with the project activities and to visit the Eustite website for updated information on the project findings.