Brussels, 26/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, before tackling the "research" aspect on the agenda, the Competitiveness Council adopted conclusions on the Community strategy for the biotechnology sector. Ministers generally supported the main lines of the Commission's analysis on the strong and the weak points in the EU sector recently described as one of the main fields in which action is needed for consolidating policy coherency. The confirmed the creation of a road map for a strategy on life sciences and biotechnology and called on the Commission to co-ordinate wit the participation of Member States, the implementation of this road map, particularly in the following area: monitoring competitiveness in the EU biotechnology sector, monitoring and adding dynamic to the implementation of the road map, while taking into account of certain social, health, environmental, ethical and security issues; ensuring the co-ordination between the different sectors linked to biotechnology. Ministers also called on the Council to begin detailed discussion in 2003 on the implementation of the road map. EUROPE will be returning to these "research" points, in which the Council had not yet finished examining when we went to press.