Member states will have to establish a new national authority to supervise organ donation and are expected to appoint "transplant coordinators" in hospitals to discuss donation with families of deceased patients.
The European Parliament's public health committee voted in favour of two reports designed to boost organ transplantation and curb illegal trafficking – a directive on quality and safety of organs and an action plan to improve donation rates.
MEPs also took a firm line against illegal organ trafficking and emphasised that organ donations must be "altruistic, voluntary and unpaid" and living donations should be seen as complementary to post-mortem donations.
New organ authorities to be established
In his report on the new organs directive, Slovak MEP Miroslav Mikolášik said each EU member state must now set up a national authority responsible for quality and safety standards of organs intended for transplantation.
This idea had been floated in the original proposal put forward by the European Commission, but the Mikolášik report adds that the new body can be either a public or private entity, provided it is not-for-profit.
The authority will have to maintain a national quality programme covering all steps from donation to transplantation or disposal, based on rules laid down in the directive. To facilitate cooperation between member states, the Commission will set up a network of authorities and establish systems to transmit information.
The authorities will approve donor procurement organisations and transplant centres, set up reporting and management systems, collect data on the outcome of transplants and supervise organ swaps with other member states and third countries.
Traceability from donor to patient and vice-versa will be part of the system, along with reporting arrangements for adverse reactions, to protect patients and donors alike. Confidentiality of patient data must be respected in line with national rules, MEPs agreed.
Fighting organ trafficking
MEPs on the Parliament's public health committee said any money paid to donors should be strictly limited to compensation for "expenses and inconveniences related to the donation".
Financial incentives to donate must be avoided, said MEPs, and member states must ban advertising on organ donation for financial gain.
One controversial element of the directive was a clause on living donation. MEPs decided living donation should "predominantly be carried out among family members and close relatives" and "where there is no suitable organ available from a deceased person."
The intention in limiting non-related donation is to clamp down on cases where living donors are paid for donating a kidney.
Action plan focuses on best practice
In a separate own-initiative report by Spanish MEP Andres Perello Rodriguez, the public health committee backed a Commission action plan on organ donation and stressed that swapping information and best practice among member states will help countries with low organ availability to improve their donation rates.
The appointment of transplant donor coordinators is a key step towards improving donor detection and organ donation rates, says the draft report.
MEPs urged national health authorities to consider using schemes whereby citizens are given the option of joining a donor register when applying for a passport or driving licence, and to consider offering online enrolment in national or European donors' registers.
Member states are also asked to include references on national identity cards or driving licences identifying the holder as an organ donor.
The use of transplant coordinators to boost donation rates has been pioneered by Spain, where 35% of people donate their organs – twice as many as the EU average. Spain, which holds the rotating six-month EU presidency, is keen to have a first reading of the new organs directive in May.
