The Nordic Council of Ministers’ Blood, Tissue and Cell Working Group to meet in Helsinki

This year, Finland will hold the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers together with Åland. In the context of its presidency, Finland will host a meeting of the Blood, Tissue and Cell Working Group operating under the Council of Ministers in Helsinki from 20 to 21 March 2025. The meeting is organised together with the Finnish Medicines Agency Fimea and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

The purpose of the Blood, Tissue and Cell Working Group founded in 2019 is to establish cooperation and coordination on matters related to human blood, tissues and cells. The group consists of representatives of the relevant ministries and authorities in the Nordic countries. This year, the Baltic countries will also attend the meeting for the first time. 

The topics of the meeting include the regulatory changes and issues related to the implementation of the new Regulation on Standards of Quality and Safety for Substances of Human Origin Intended for Human Application (SoHo Regulation), which entered into force in August 2024. 

The objective of the SoHO Regulation is to improve the quality and safety of substances of human origin, to harmonise supervision and other regulatory operations, to facilitate the movement of substances of human origin between EU countries and to secure the availability of substances of human origin.

The new Regulation will extend not only to blood, tissues and cells but also to faecal microbiota and human breast milk. The Regulation will also apply to all operations that have a direct impact on the quality, safety or efficiency of substances of human origin. For this reason, the Regulation will apply to a wider range of public and private health care actors in the future. 

During its Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Finland will pay particular attention to the security of society, crisis preparedness and improving resilience as well as children and young people.

More information

Regulation on Standards of Quality and Safety for Substances of Human Origin Intended for Human Application (EU 2024/1938, EUR-Lex, pdf)

Nordic Co-operation Programme for Health and Social Affairs 2025–2030