Approximately 60,000 EU patients are on waiting lists and every day 12 of them die waiting for a transplant. Therefore, the need of Common European rules on organ transplants is urgent and was debated yesterday and voted today by the European Parliament.

Europe has to ensure that organs are securely obtained and transplanted but should also give a response to the growing demand. The lack of organs in the European Union centers the question at the level of the crime and the public regulation. Unfortunately, there are several European countries that have a lack of legislation in these matters and there are always people making profit of the weakest. In order to avoid illegal organ trafficking, any commercialisation or financial incentives must be strictly excluded. Because there is also a lack of organs in conditions of being transplanted in some member states, the system must be standardized. The donor coordination between foreign countries is ought to also be expanded and encouraged. Citizens should not have to pay for the unequal systems that exist in some countries and the new legislative report that was today approved in the European Parliament has the objective of establishing equal rights for all. There is an urgent need to specify the competent authority in each member state responsible for ensuring quality and safety standards for transplantation of organs.

“The voluntary and unpaid donation should be the main source of getting an organ and the donors and the receptors should be protected.”, defended Marisa Matias, shadow MEP in this report and also member of the European Left.

Member states have to be more active in this matter promoting the exchange of information and best practices to help countries with low organ availability improve their donor rates because even though over 80% of Europeans support the donor card only 12% actually have one. In Spain there are 34.6 donations per million people compared with 0.5 per million in Romania (EP source).