Brussels, 23/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission adopted its strategy in the field of biotechnology (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10), one of the main elements of its contribution to the European Council of Barcelona. The strategy is completed by an action plan together with recommendations to the Member States, the local authorities, industry and all interested parties. Its aim is to help Europe to master frontier technologies that could make a major contribution to the goal, set at the March 2000 Lisbon European Council, of becoming the world's most competitive, knowledge-based and sustainable economy within a decade. Based on a "cooperative and consistent" approach in the prospect of sustainable development, the strategy tackles complex issues of ethics and society concerns and supports the broad public debate.
Commenting on the event, Commission Preesident Romano Prodi said: "It is of key importance for Europe to master the new frontier technologies which will be at the core of a knowledge-based economy. Life sciences and biotechnology are developing rapidly and globally and have given rise to intense public debate. Europe needs to address the challenges of biotech by developing responsible policies to exploit these new opportunities in a manner that is consistent with European values and standards. Commitment to fundamental ethical values will be crucial to build confidence and foster public acceptance of new biotechnology. With this initiative, the Commission sends a strong signal to the public and private actors who must work together for Europe to be successful".
Europe is in fact faced with a major policy choice: either we accept a passive role, and bear the implications of the development of these technologies elsewhere, or we develop pro-active policies to exploit them in a responsible manner. Life sciences and biotechnology are widely recognised to be, after information technology, the next wave of technological revolution in the knowledge-based economy, creating opportunities for our societies and economies. By 2005, the European biotechnology market could be worth over EUR 100 million. By 2010, global markets, including sectors where life sciences and biotechnology constitute a major portion of new technology applied, could amount to over EUR 2,000 billion, excluding agriculture. There are now more dedicated biotechnolgoy companies in Europe (1,570) than in the US (1,273), but the European biotech sector is made of relatively small companies, whereas the US biotechnology industry started earlier, employs many more people (162,000 against 61,000), is much more strongly capitalised and in particular has many more biotech products in the pipeline. We re call that the Commission proposed allocating EUR 1,150 billion to biotechnology within the next research framework programme that starts in January 2003.
Europe does not have a single policy for life sciences and biotechnology but a patchwork of many sector-specific and overall policies at international, EU, Member State and local levels. In Europe, relevant responsibilities are spread across a broad range of policies and actors. In the absence of a share vision of what is at stake and without common objectives, Europe has therefore only slowly and with difficulty addressed the challenges and opportunities of these new technologies.
To monitor progress in policy development and on the ground, and to anticipate emerging issues in this fast-developing area, the Commission will present a regular Life Science and Biotechnology Report, including a rolling work programme for related legislation. The Commission will, as part of its Life Science and Biotechnology reports, review the consistency of EU policies and legislation affecting life sciences and biotechnology and launch initiatives and proposals as appropriate. Where different levels of competence apply, the strategy should be a reference for cooperation between the different actors.
To facilitate transparency and dialogue on the further development and implementation of the proposed strategy for life sciences and biotechnology, the Commission will organise a broadly-based Stakeholders' Forum. It now invites other EU institutions and bodies, Member States, regional authorities, the private sector and the public to help refine and implement the proposed strategy. It considers that, in this process, defining detailed measures under short-and medium-term actions and their agenda will be a first decisive step towards an effective and coherent European biotechnology policy.