Press Release: Organs donation and transplantation: EDPS calls for enhanced security measures at national and cross-border levels

On 5 March, 2009, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) adopted an opinion on the Commission's proposal for a Directive on standards of quality and safety of human organs intended for transplantation. The proposal provides for national quality programmes to advance organs donation and transplantation, including a traceability mechanism to ensure that all organs can be traced from donation to reception and vice versa. The proposed procedure involves the collection and circulation of health data, which are regarded as sensitive and therefore fall under the stricter rules of EU data protection legislation.

The EDPS welcomes the attention given in the proposal to the data protection needs arising both for the donors and the recipient of organs, especially as concerns the requirement for keeping their identities confidential. He however recommends to further emphasize the need for reinforced protection of the donors' and recipients' personal data throughout the organs traceability chain established within the proposal. This can be achieved with the application of strong organisational and technical security measures, both in the national donors and recipients databases, as well as in the cross-border exchange of organs.