Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-05-18-Speech-2-343"
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"en.20100518.31.2-343"2
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"Madam President, Mrs Jiménez García-Herrera, Commissioner, it is 43 years since Dr Christiaan Barnard said the sentence ‘
’, which in Afrikaans means ‘Jesus, this is going to work’, as he watched in disbelief as the heart he had just transplanted was beating. In that time, it has become common practice to transplant a useful organ from a person who no longer needs it to another who needs it in order to live.
I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the willingness and cooperation shown by both the rapporteurs – in this case Mr Mikolášik – and the shadow rapporteurs. I would also like to highlight the major impetus that the Spanish Presidency – represented by the Spanish Ministry of Health and Dr Matesanz, as Director of the Spanish National Transplant Organisation – have given to this directive and to the action plan, because we have been able to count on them at all times.
I would like to stress that those who have worked so hard deserve our thanks and ask you to repay them by unanimously adopting this report. As a Member, I am thankful for the work that has been done, and as a European I am thankful that this step is being taken to save the lives of all the citizens of the Union who might need it at any time.
It is, however, also true that this has not yet prevented 56 000 Europeans from being on the waiting list, and has not prevented the possibility that 12 of those people will have died by the end of this debate because they do not have the organ that they need. Therein lies the challenge for Parliament which, in this plenary sitting, has to adopt both the directive, which was explained so well by Dr Mikolášik, and also the action plan.
There is no doubt that we need to offer clear and efficient channels of support for the European public so that no European dies due to a lack of organs as a result of shortcomings in the transplant system.
Europeans living longer, a reduction in traffic accidents and advances in science are, of course, to be celebrated, but they also mean that more organs need to be available as there are more people who need them.
The response from Europeans when they are asked whether they are willing to donate organs in order to save the life of a fellow citizen is very strong and very positive. The reason that this is often not directly reflected in the number of transplants carried out in each country is undoubtedly because we need to improve essential aspects of our transplant system such as coordination, information, professional training and educating the public on this issue.
In some countries, we have examples that show that when coordination and training are at optimum level, the number of transplants per million people increases. If you will allow me, I will quote the example of Spain, where a model has been established that must be used as a benchmark.
In addition to the guarantees of quality and safety in transplants and the complementary, free and voluntary nature of transplants from living donors established by the directive, there are the recommendations established by the action plan on the need for continuous training for professionals, and for society to be provided with information and education on this issue, without which it is difficult to work.
All of this forms the basis for optimising what we could call a harmonised European transplant system shared by all the Member States as an instrument for achieving the objective that we have set ourselves. Our objective is simply to reach the point where no European dies because he lacks an organ that he needs in order to live due to systems that have not been perfected.
In 21st century Europe, we cannot allow a lack of coordination or of optimised systems to cause an organ to be lost so that another European cannot benefit from it. This is what the adoption of this directive and action plan is achieving, which is the result of hard work."@en1
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