(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission on Wednesday put forward ideas to encourage organ donations and transplants, including plans for an EU-wide organ donor card and expanding the use of living donors.

A Eurobarometer survey shows that while 81 percent of European citizens support the use of organ donor cards, only 12 percent have one.

EU Health Comissioner Markos Kyprianou aptly illustrated the problem at a press conference when asked if he carried a donor card.

"No, and I'm willing to donate and this proves the problem," he replied.

While the number of organ donations and transplants in the EU has risen steadily, many obstacles remain, including a shortage of donors and diverging quality and safety standards, according to the EU's executive arm.

"Thousands of lives are saved every year in Europe by organ transplants. Yet many more lives could be saved if we could reduce the current shortage of organs in many European countries," Kyprianou said.

"A European organ donor card, and common EU standards on the quality and safety of organ donations and transplants, could add value to national efforts to secure a sufficient and safe supply or organs," he added.

The Commission's action plan includes ideas to increase organ availability, such as creating organ transplant coordinators in hospitals.

It would also promote the exchange of best practices between member states to make transplant systems more efficient and accessible.

The common standards would be achieved with the help of a European Directive on the quality and safety of organ donation, which the Commission hopes will be introduced next year when the action plan is developed through consultation.

The directive will set minimum standards in the sector.

"If member states want to adopt higher standards then they will have the possibility to do so," Kyprianou said.

In 2006, 56 percent of Europeans declared themselves ready to donate their organs after their death, but this readiness varies considerably from country to country.

Support among citizens for the idea of donating an organ was highest in Sweden (81 percent), Malta (75 percent) and Finland (73 percent), and lowest in Romania (27 percent), Latvia (29 percent) and Austria (33 percent).

"With eight out of 10 Europeans favouring organ donor cards but only one in 10 actually carrying one, there is clearly huge potential to increase the availability of organs for donation," said Kyprianou.

"Organ donations save lives, and if more people discussed their views with their families in advance, this would also make the decision to donate the organ of a deceased relative much easier."

The survey also revealed large differences in actual organ donation and transplant rates within the EU, ranging from 34.6 donors per million people in Spain to 13.8 in Britain, six in Greece and 0.5 in Romania.

"These differences cannot be easily explained and it is clear that some organisational models are performing better than others," the Commission said.

Cooperation between the member states should focus on identifying the most efficient systems, sharing experience and promoting best practice as well as supporting EU nations with underdeveloped transplant systems, it added.

Kyprianou said that in 2005 over 26,000 people had benefitted from an organ trasplant that that the waiting list was over twice as long.

Organ donation and transplantation in the EU: questions & answers

Europeans and organ donations - Eurobarometer study

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