Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-15-Speech-1-060"
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"en.20031215.6.1-060"2
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".
Mr President, the global agreement put forward today by the rapporteur is a good compromise, which takes on board the key European Parliament amendments while still being in line with the Commission proposal on the essential questions. It is good news for patients that we will soon have Community legislation on tissues and cells.
It also achieves an optimum solution for the updating of technical standards, maintaining all the political issues under the codecision procedure, while leaving the technical details for comitology.
I note that many of you, including Dr Liese, are not entirely satisfied that the Commission has not offered to go further on the so-called ethical issues. This is not because we do not consider ethical standards to be important. Quite the contrary: it is precisely because ethical standards are so important to our citizens that we must not overstep the mark. I refer to what Mrs Jackson said in relation to subsidiarity, with which I agree.
The Commission is the guardian of the Treaty. We have to respect the advice of our Legal Service – advice echoed by the Legal Service of the Council. A satisfactory compromise is proposed today on voluntary and unpaid donation and the non-profit character of the procurement of tissues and cells as such, which reflects the goodwill on all sides. A series of amendments aims to limit the use of certain types of cells, such as cells derived from cloning or abortion.
With this proposal we seek neither to mandate nor to prohibit the use of specific types of cells. If, however, any particular use of such cells is authorised in a Member State, then the directive will apply, to require the application of all provisions necessary to protect public health. The quality and safety of organs is a major concern of the European Parliament. The Commission is acutely aware of the importance of this matter and we have taken concrete steps to address this issue.
The Commission statement on organs proposed as part of this compromise is a real commitment to continue work in this area and to find the best approach to the current situation, which is characterised by a shortage of organs. As I have already said, any approach needs to balance two factors: the need for the transplantation of organs - which is usually a matter of life or death - and the need to ensure high standards of quality and safety of such organs.
The Commission statement is complemented by the Council statement that it intends to intensify efforts to combat organ trafficking.
In conclusion, I am very pleased to be able to accept the compromise package on the table today.
I thank you all once again for your strenuous efforts on this dossier."@en1
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