Brussels, 07/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - During its October plenary session, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted by 71 votes in favour, 26 against and 8 abstentions and without any amendments the opinion presented by the general rapporteur, Gerd Wolf (Various Interests, Germany) on "modification of the specific research programme: strengthening the European research area". The question raised is that of knowing whether the Commission can finance stem cell research, a very sensitive subject from the ethical point of view in all Union countries (EUROPE of 6 November, p.14, on the subject of the EP vote). After a lively debate, a counter-opinion (which was rejected by 28 votes to 76 and 11 abstentions) was presented by Paolo Braghin (Employers, Italy). The main point of disagreement concerned the use of Community funding for stem cell research even though this kind of research is not authorised in some Member States. The counter-opinion was presented because a minority was against Mr Wolf's opinion for ethical reasons.
The EESC considers the European Commission takes a moderate attitude on this subject and also a restrictive approach, half-way between the different national legislations of Member States. The opinion adopted states that the proposals authorise support in favour of key scientific research for major medical and biological purposes.
During the debate, Daniel Retureau (Workers, France) said one should not stop on the road to progress or when genetic problems can be resolved. If research is justified, then Community funding is also justified. His compatriot from the same group, Adrein Bedossa, stressed how urgent it was to decide what should be done with the increasingly large number of discarded embryos. In his view, there are currently one million "and no-one knows what to do with them". Heinz Putzhammer (Workers, Germany) said that the EESC text is lacking in balance and the initial European Commission proposal is eminently political. He feels Community funding should not be used for this kind of research.
General Rapporteur Gerd Wolf stressed, for his part, the important "added value" of the Community approach (compared to several national approaches) in this field of research, mainly when it concerns the creation of a bank of stem cells at Community level, which would significantly reduce the number of embryos required. Mr Wolf considers it is not logical for Member States who ban research requiring stem cells taken from surnumerary human embryos to import stem cells from other countries. Given that the results of the research would be diffused throughout the EU, this research should receive Community funding, he concludes.