(Strasbourg) “In the last few decades, transplant medicine has progressed at an unimaginable rate, extending and thus improving the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of patients. Even if the number of donations is increasing all the time, the number of people on the waiting lists and the registrations grow even faster. The figures show that the scarcity of organs is still the main obstacle”. This has been said by the general secretary of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, a few days before the European Day for Organ Donation and Transplantation, which this year will be officially celebrated in Berne (Switzerland) on September 9^th. The initiative, created by the EU Council in 1998, this year is called “Let’s give hope back to patients on waiting lists”. According to EU Council’s figures, about 18 patients die in Europe every day while waiting for transplant (In 2011, the average was 12 people dead a day). Over 143 thousand patients registered in a waiting list in 2015 (+ 5% on 2014). Five new patients are added to waiting lists every hour. Jagland also called the governments “to do more to make the European citizens aware of the importance of organ donation to reduce the number of patients dying while waiting for transplantation”.