Background

The initial objective of the cooperation, which was called the DEBRA programme, was to foster the development of independent and multidisciplinary ethics committee for review of biomedical research projects in Central and Eastern European countries.

The objective was then progressively broadened as follows:

To inform about the principles laid down in Council of Europe legal instruments and to facilitate their implementation, in particular in the field of biomedical research (i.e. Additional Protocol to the Oviedo Convention concerning Biomedical Research, Rec(2006)4 on Research on Biological Materials of Human Origin) .

Types of activities

Under the cooperation programme, multilateral, regional or bilateral seminars/meetings have been organised. Legal expertises on national legal instruments have also been carried out.

Request for activities

Cooperation activities are considered on the basis of requests made by delegations.

The objective of the activity proposed has to be consistent with the general objective mentioned above.

Financial support for cooperation activities

For activities directly organised by the CoE, the Council of Europe can generally cover the participation of 2 or 3 experts/rapporteurs for each meeting/seminar.

Financial support for the practical organisation of a meeting can also be considered. To that end, a provisional budget has to be presented together with the request for the activity.

To ensure a proper planning and organisation of cooperation activities in the next year, requests have to be sent to the Secretariat of the DH-BIO, by 10 November of the current year.

Related activities