Brussels, 17/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Temporary Committee on Bio-ethics in the European Parliament, created due to the division of MEPs over the question of cloning human embryos for therapeutical purposes, met for the first time on Tuesday in Strasbourg. Set up to last one year, the committee entitled "human genetics and the new technologies in modern medicine" has the mandate of carrying out indepth research on ethical, social and economic issues linked to future developments in the field of biotechnologies, and of submitting proposals for possible Community legislation in this connection. Paul Lannoye (Co-Chair of the Greens/ALE group, Belgium) felt the beginning of the work of this committee is getting just to the right point as it coincides with the announcement, last week, of the creation for the first time of a genetically modified primate (Ed.: ANDi the monkey with jellyfish genes), "which cannot not raise serious ethical questions". The authorisation just before Christmas of the go-ahead given by the British Parliament to the cloning of embryos for therapeutical purposes which "opened dangerous possibilities for abuse" is another illustration of this, stresses Paul Lannoye in a press release in which he states that "Tony Blair's crusade" must not become a reference within the Union. "We hope that this Committee when it has finished its work in a year's time, will have defined clear rules which guarantee that ethical principles are not violated in the current biotech rush. There is a big danger that technology dictates the evolution of society. We maintain that technology is there to serve people and not the other way round", said the MEP. EUROPE will come back to this in greater detail.