th It is a great pleasure for me to open the jubilee 25 International Symposium on Blood Transfusion here in Groningen. This symposium is co-sponsored by the World Health Organization and is being held under the auspices of the ISBT and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Walter Schwimmer. The patronage was granted with great pleasure for several reasons. First of all, Dutch experts are very active in our Committees and have largely contributed in developing the Council of Europe principles in the blood area. Secondly, the Council of Europe is active today in the area of blood transfusion due to a tragic event, which occurred in 1953 in the Netherlands; following a flooding many of the blood products given for assistance' could not be used due to incompatibilities and differences in labelling. Some words to present the Council of Europe since the organisation is sometimes confused with institutions ofthe European Union: The organisation has been founded in 1949 to establish the principles of democracy and rule of law all over Europe. Since 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin wall and the opening up of the iron curtain, these principles could be extended to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Today this makes the Council of Europe the only pan-European organisation with 41 Member States thus representing more than 750 million people.

Inhalt
I. Blood Supply Systems and Organisation.- Blood Transfusion: Quo Vadis? Customer Orientation as the Leading Principal for Blood Banks in the Future.- Community Involvement: The Development, the Past the Present and the Future of Blood Donations as a Form of Community Involvement.- Structure and Commitments Blood Supply Systems and Organization.- Applying Decision Analysis to Transfusion Medicine in the Real World to Improve Transfusion Safety.- Cost-Effectiveness of HIV NAT Screening for Dutch Donors.- Legal and Regulatory Aspects of Blood Transfusion.- Discussion.- II. Technical and Pharmaceutical Developments.- Freezing and Vitrification of Red Cells, Recollections and Predictions.- Plasma Fractionation.- Inactivation of Viruses, Bacteria, Protozoa, and Leukocytes in Labile Blood Components by Using Nucleic Acid Targeted Methods.- Alternatives to Human Blood Resources.- Discussion.- III. Quality Principles and Risk Management.- Quality Systems and Management: 2000 Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?.- Traceability and Coding Principles.- Quality Principles and Risk Management: Automation and Documentation.- Haemovigilance.- Human Resources: Teaching and Training in Transfusion Medicine.- Discussion.- IV. Transfusion Medicine at the Bedside.- The Epidemiology of Blood Component Transfusion in South Eastern Scotland, 1990 to 1997.- Contributions of Meta-Analysis to Transfusion Medicine.- Immunomodulation: Facts and Interpretations.- Development and Implementation of New Cellular Therapies.- Transfusion Medicine and the Development of Gene Therapy.- Making Policy in the 2000s.- Discussion.