Brussels, 25/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday evening Commissioner Janez Potocnik was the first to welcome the agreement obtained at the Council of EU ministers on the common position on the 7th Research Development Framework Programme (RDFP) for 2007-13 and the more specific aspect of research on human embryo stem cells (EUROPE 9268). This dossier remains very sensitive and the agreement was obtained on the basis of the text approved by the European Parliament but with guarantees introduced by the Commission in a twelve point declaration with the last point explaining that, “the European Commission will continue with the current practice and will not submit to the Regulatory Committee proposals for projects which include research activities which destroy human embryos, including for the procurement of stem cells. The exclusion of funding of this step of research will not prevent Community funding of subsequent steps involving human embryonic stem cells”. Although this commitment allowed for an agreement at qualified majority on the whole of the framework programme by lifting the German and Italian reservations, it allows for a correction to be made to the most controversial aspect of the vote at the European Parliament, which opened the way to Community funding for the removal of cells, in other words, the destruction of embryos.
Although several patients' associations, such as EURORDIS, an organisation that brings together associations at a European level and which deal with rare diseases, welcomed the agreement which will allow for the continuation of research via other treatments, other voices were raised against this research which continues in other parts of the world, sometimes without any ethical regulation in the slightest. German Green Hiltrud Breyer said that she was deeply disappointed and pointed out that alternatives existed to the use of stem cells, blood cells from the umbilical cord and adult stem cells. On the other hand, CSU MEPs like Angelika Niebler and Markus Ferber acknowledge that progress had been made compared to the vote at Parliament. Italian research minister, Fabio Mussi replied to opponents of embryonic stem cell research by pointing out that this research aimed to prolong life and guarantee human dignity by allowing for people suffering from serious illness to be properly cared for. COMECE, the Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Communities declared that it was extremely disappointed by the decision of the Council of ministers, which the Bishops described as a “trap” because funding for research activities based on embryonic stem cells would only encourage the preliminary stages. The Bishops therefore consider that this means “implicit support for destroying embryos”.
Following this declaration, it appeared useful to clarify a certain point, the Commission had ended the examination of each research project by a programme committee made up of representatives from Member States, as a central element in simplifying selection procedures. The Commission has indicated that getting rid of examining projects was never planned for stem cell research. It also pointed out that it would continue to appeal for administrative restrictions that slow the execution of the framework programme down, to be simplified. Over coming weeks, the Commission will be seeking to reassure Member States that support this right of observation on all research projects financed by the Community budget. As we indicated yesterday (EUROPE 9238), a new funding line appeared in the budget breakdown approved by the Council. This focuses on €70 million (over seven years) and involves the coherent development of research policies, notably the funding of CREST, the exchange of best practices and the work on tax incentives. In the Commission's initial proposal, the whole of these activities and their funding were planned on the basis of the “Science in society” envelope.
All attention will now focus on negotiations with the European Parliament, the crux of which centres on the European Research Council's management structure, which is in charge of identifying exploratory European research projects. The Council of the EU wants to end the Parliament's right of co-decision on how this structure develops mid-programme and Parliament will do all it can to preserve these rights. If everything goes well, the second reading at Parliament on a text from this negotiation could occur on 30 November. At this stage, the Commission is still hoping to be able to launch the first calls for proposals before the end of the year in order to guarantee application of the RDFP at the beginning of 2007. This timetable may, however, change due to deadlines that require Parliament to give decisions on specific programmes (it is only consulted on this subject but parliamentary committees have still not examined the reports) and on participation rules that have to be adopted in co-decision. The latter are very technical and are the subject of the Busquin report, as are the significant number of amendments that risk complicating negotiations with the Council of Ministers.