During the plenary session (17/05/2010 to 23/05/2010) of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs debate on organ donation and transplantation with the Commission and the Council.

Organ donation and transplantation: extracts from the Commission and Council statements

Exterior view of the European Parliament, Strasbourg

SOUNDBITE (Slovak), Miroslav MIKOL&#193;&#352;IK (EPP, SK), Rapporteur, The principles for donation of organs is altruistic, voluntarydonation this can not be questions and the confidential nature of the donor must also be protected. we must also protect the voluntary and unpaid nature of these donations.

SOUNDBITE (Slovak), Miroslav MIKOL&#193;&#352;IK (EPP, SK), Rapporteur, There must not be any monetary compensation, the Member States must lay down conditions as to how and when these organs are to be allocated. We must prevent any possible compensation in money for donors we need to also ensure that we must have a declaration of death for the deceased person befor any removal of organs can take place

SOUNDBITE (Slovak), Miroslav MIKOL&#193;&#352;IK (EPP, s), Rapporteur, We are hoping for considerable progres here . Especially in countries some systems are not well are not well developed and hopefully measures will be taken to improve the situation as a result of this situation.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Andres PERELLO RODRIGUEZ (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, We need to improve our systepms of transplants in sompe fundamental espects such as coordination , information, professional training and citizens' education in this matter.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Andres PERELLO RODRIGUEZ (S&amp;D, ES), Rapporteur, We can not accept in Europe of the 21st century that a lack of ccordination or unsatisfying systems make us loose any organ and because of that a European citizens would miss an organ.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Trinidad JIMENEZ GARCIA-HERRERA, EU Council Presidency, Today in the EU there 18 donors per 1,000,000 inhabitants, If we were able to raise this figure in order to match those of Spain with 34, or more than 30 in Portugal we would save ,0000 more lives in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Trinidad JIMENEZ GARCIA-HERRERA, EU Council Presidency, We can not forget at nay moment that wihtout donors there are no transplants. this debate will allow tu give an impulse to setting up a common European endeavour to reach the largest structure in the world in terms of organs donations and transplants

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Trinidad JIMENEZ GARCIA-HERRERA, EU Council Presidency, A Directive that establishes a common framework that will allow us to limit risks linked to the therapeutic use of organs inall the various steps of the process from the donation to the transplant guarantying safety and quality of organs and at the same time giving protection to donors and receipients through the designation of competent authorities, in the second we will have an action plan which will reinforce the cooperation between Member States with a triple objective, first rise the number of organs avzailable ,secondly the efficiency and accessbility to the transplant system and thirdly ,improving the quality and safety.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Trinidad JIMENEZ GARCIA-HERRERA, EU Council Presidency, We have to reach an agreement. An agreement which would let us set up aEuropean service which will cpover the needs of 500 million people with major guaranty of quality and safety and also improvev equal access to treatments of those whose lives depend on it.

SOUNDBITE by John Dalli, European Commission, in English :

SOUNDBITE (English), John DALLI, European Commissioner, The proposal for a Directive sets the legal framework for quality and safety requirements and the action plan focuses on the availability of organs and the efficiency of tramsportation systems.

SOUNDBITE (English), John DALLI, European COmmissioner, I strongly support strengthening the principles of voluntary and unpaid donation which are essential for ensuring quality and safety of organs.

SOUNDBITE (English), John DALLI, European Commissioner, I also welcome that thetext proposal recognizes that living donations co exists with deceased donations in most Member States. Liviong donation increases the number of available organs and I welcome the text strengthening the efforts to protect living donors as a means to guaranty quality and safety of organs for transplantations. Adopting a law is the first step what really matters is that the law is implemented, this is the reason why the Commission insists that Member States report how they transpose directives into National law, the so called corrolation tables.

Organ donation and transplantation: extracts from the Commission and Council statements

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