The Legal Regulation of Biobanks: National Report: Cyprus

Abstract

As partners in the European Union Framework Project entitled “GeneBanC: Genetic bio and dataBanking: Confidentiality and protection of data” we are exploring the legal regulations of data- banks. The Center for Ethics and Law in Biomedi- cine established at the Central Euro- pean University, Budapest aimed to investigate the existing regulatory frame works of bio- banks across the EU and focus on the collection and analysis of legislation and regulation regarding the establishment, management and functioning of classical, population and forensic bio- banks across Europe. An important objective was to look at the similarities and differences in such legislation and regulations, in order to formulate recommendations towards a harmonization of European practices and regulations. The European jurisdiction was divided up into two parts between CELAB and the Belgian project partner, the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law, K.U.Leuven. CELAB focused on the regulatory framework of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. The present booklet is the first one in the series of country reports prepared by CELAB.