Brussels, 03/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - The compromise proposed by the Italian presidency for attempting to toughen up the ethical framework proposed by the European Commission on community funding for research into stem cells from human embryos will have only survived a few hours. The draft intended to ban the funding for removing cells from embryos, which was agreed to, but it also proposed limiting funding for research on existing stem cell lines at the adoption of the draft (in principle, from 3 December this year). This would be unacceptable to the countries that sought to develop this kind of research (United Kingdom in first place, but also France, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece etc.). During the final press conference, the President of the Council, Leizia Moratti tried desperately to present the Italian proposal as a liberal, indeed, "more advanced" formula than that of the US Administration that also mentions a deadline for obtaining these established cell lines. This ignores the fact there already exists a lot more established cell lines in the US than in Europe. Commissioner Philippe Busquin did not fail to point out that that cell lines did not exist in Europe before July 2003. At the moment, there are 4-5 in Sweden and 2 in the United Kingdom, whereas other countries like Belgium and France have removed and developed cells but they still need two more years in order to have cell lines. This explains the opposition of these countries and the Commission to the Italian Presidency's proposal which would put a brake on developing these cell lines, namely the crucial material for this type of research. The Italian proposal will therefore only obtain the support of Portugal, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg, as well as Spain (which had hitherto not taken a position on the matter). The number of these countries is insufficient for indefinitely blocking adoption of the ethical framework proposed by the Commission and approved by the European Parliament.
During the press conference, Commissioner Busquin pointed out that the 6th framework research programme, adopted in codecision by the Council and the EP, authorises the funding for human embryo stem cell research. After its adoption, at the request of certain Member States, a moratorium had been set up and the Commission had proposed a tough ethical framework for this kind of funding. "There was no qualified majority for putting this research into a framework" and the moratorium ends on 31 December, pointed out Mr Busquin. He also indicated that from January 2004, the Commission would have preferred to have this framework and examine, "wisely", on a case-by-case basis, the research projects submitted to him for Community funding. The Commissioner pointed out that they would not go beyond the rules that they themselves had set out. Funding will be accorded according to the rules of committee procedure, which insists Member States have to have qualified majority for opposing a project that has the approval of the Commission.