Brussels, 30/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - In order to meet new terrorist threats, the European Association for Bio-Industries (EuropaBio) launched a European Bio-Defence Task Force in Brussels on 28 March. Johan Vanhemelrijck, EuropaBio Secretary General, said the aim of the Task Force will be to heighten awareness among the officials of European institutions in order to promote the interests of the bio-industry at Community level by keeping them informed of the legislation and promoting research and development investment in the bio-defence sector. The Bio-Defence Industry, which is composed of about one hundred companies in Europe (Thalès, Bayer Health Care, Smiths Detection, JMAR Technologies …), focuses on detection, vaccines and decontamination, and mainly concerns defence against the use by terrorists of NRBC (nuclear, biological, radiological and chemical) weapons), as well as infectious diseases. Johan Vanhemelrijck said that, thanks to these companies, conferences may be organised on methods to detect pathogenic agents, dual technology principles, vaccines against infectious diseases, and decontamination procedures in the event of nuclear, chemical, radiological and biological attack. During the launch of the Task Force several representatives from the industrial sector presented methods to fight against viruses and bacteria used as biological weapons and on detection techniques. Jorge Bento Silva, Chief Administrator at the Commission, pointed out that the Commission is preparing a communication on the state of EU preparedness against bio-terrorist threat, as well as a Green Paper on the general detection of biological risks. “When a bio-terrorist attack happens on Union territory, no-one will be aware that it is one, hence the need to closely examine the means available to the EU to combat this kind of happening”, Mr Bento Silva explained. A conference on bio-terrorism and detection is due to take place in July in order to launch a working document. From a financial point of view, Jorge Bento Silva states that the budget devoted to the preparatory activities on bio-terrorism amounts, in 2006, to around €500,000 per year, rising to €1.5 million in 2007 and reaching the sum of around €4.5 million in 2009. “The European Union must have a coherent and integrated approach on bio-terrorism”, Mr Silva added, admitting that, in the event of a large-scale attack, “the EU would not have sufficient means to protect the whole of the European population”. In 2007, the EU will take up the Commission's work that should have made sufficient progress by then. The German EU Presidency is then expected to be able to begin talks on an EU bio-security strategy in the first half of 2007 and the Portuguese EU Presidency will then have the opportunity to have this strategy adopted in the second half of the year.
During the first international conference on bioterrorism in 2005, the Secretary General of Interpol, Ronald Noble declared that the bio-terrorist threat was a reality, given the evidence demonstrating that terrorists wanted to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including biological weapons. In this context, the coordinator of the Task Force, Alexandre Custaud, considers it “vital to continue seeking recommendations and experience from the Americans, given their substantial lead in this field”. The US bio-defence industries consider that creating a market in Europe is particularly important. Frank Rapoport from McKenna Long and Aldridge declared that in America, the BioShield law of 2004 has helped the concept of bio-defence go a long way because it had allowed the US authorities, in partnership with industry, provide medical counter-measures (vaccines and anti-virals) to protect the population against NRBC. He said that he hoped the European Commission would send out a clear message to the European bio-defence industries to launch a partnership. Mr Rapoport believes that the bio-industries were more developed in the US due to the presence of the military. He stated that perhaps in Europe the solution would be to use NATO to help develop Member States' awareness of the threat of bio-terrorism in Europe.