Mr President, over the last few years scientific progress has transformed human organ transplants into a routine medical procedure with over a 99% success rate in western Europe. However, the serious shortage of donors means that many patients still die unnecessarily. To counter this shortage, sadly an abhorrent phenomenon has developed – the illicit trade in human organs. There are several well-documented cases of EU citizens who have travelled to poorer countries in the world in search of vital remedies for their own failing health. This rise in so-called 'transplant tourism', whereby rich EU citizens, rich EU patients, are purchasing organs from living donors in developing countries, is on the rise and is to me completely abhorrent. I appreciate that anyone dying of kidney failure will be desperate. Indeed, they are themselves a victim of the current failing system. But it cannot be right or acceptable that someone with money is able to buy a better life for themselves at the expense of someone else's health. Make no mistake, while in many cases a living healthy donor may be alright after an operation, in many other cases the donor's health will be critically affected. It is already illegal in 14 out of 15 EU countries for citizens to buy an organ from anyone else. So, if we outlaw it in our own countries, why can anyone think it acceptable to buy human organs from other countries? We do not permit, say, someone from the south of England to go to Scotland to purchase a kidney, nor is it legal for a Parisian to go to Marseilles for the same purpose. So why can it be acceptable for any European to go to India or Pakistan or indeed any European Union citizen to travel to Moldova or the Ukraine? I know there may be considerable consensus tonight on this debate, but I also know that there are alternative views in my own country and indeed elsewhere. Furthermore, many of us have read reports in the international media suggesting that there are criminal gangs out there trafficking and murdering and even suggestions or allegations of children being bred in order to remove their organs later on. The Schengen system, which we applaud, makes it easier, however, for criminal gangs to move freely around the European Union where they can exploit the divergences between Member States' legislation. The very welcome accession of the new Member States of the European Union will make it possible to tackle cross-border issues such as trafficking more effectively. However, if the area of free movement is extended, common rules such as these are essential in order to ensure that criminal groups are not able to further exploit the differences in Member States' laws to their own benefit. My report also calls on the Commission to evaluate the feasibility of a comprehensive European Union directive regulating the legal use of organs for transplant, including a database of legally available organs and the creation of an EU-wide database of patients in need of an organ transplant. Member States may also wish to consider whether the current practice whereby citizens opt in to donate their organs in the event of their death should be changed to one where, unless they have opted out, their organs will be available for medical transplant. I will certainly be urging the British Government to consider this possibility. The Greek proposal before us lays out common definitions of offences to be included in the scope of trafficking in human organs. It sets a minimum ten years' imprisonment for offences committed in aggravating circumstances and introduces a much needed element of extraterritoriality, whereby individuals who seek to purchase organs from third country nationals, even outside the EU, would be committing an offence under EU law. I support the main aims and principles of the Greek proposal. I am suggesting, however, a few amendments. I would like to add to the title the words 'parts of organs and tissues', which removes any ambiguities. Also, adding the word 'illegal' would eliminate any suggestion that legitimate medical purposes might be adversely affected. If the title is modified to clarify that the proposal is concerned only with illegal trafficking, then reproductive and embryonic organs and tissues and blood should also be included in the scope of the proposal. Furthermore, I do not believe that living donors should be held criminally responsible. It is not appropriate for the EU to criminalise a donor who, in the vast majority of cases, will have been persuaded or coerced by criminal networks in the hope of escaping from extreme poverty. With these remarks and the proposed amendments that I have put before you, I commend this report to colleagues and I hope that as many of you as possible will be able to support this report tomorrow.

Political group: PSE