Brussels, 09/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - With the growing danger of the use of viruses, bacteria or micro-organisms by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, and to be prepared for natural, perhaps accidental, biological threats, the European Commission will, on Wednesday, adopt a Green Paper on bio-preparedness.
Given that bio-threats are at one and the same time a criminal and a health issue the Commissioners with responsibility for Security Franco Frattini and Health Markos Kyprianou will propose a text drawn up in common to launch a European debate on how to reduce biological risks, and improve preparedness and the response in the event of a crisis. In a preparatory document for the Green Paper, seen by EUROPE, the Commission firstly sets out the “key principles” of the approach it intends to implement. At this point, the Commission considers it preferable not to legislate further in this area given the legislation already in transport and monitoring. It feels it would be better to use tools such as peer evaluation, awareness-raising campaigns and supportive financial programmes. In the same way as the work planned for the protection of critical infrastructure, the Commission says it wants member states to have sufficient room for manoeuvre in any action to be taken. It also intends to use an intensive public-private dialogue in the area of security. In reality, the Commission has, for more than a year, been planning to present such a document, for which it will probably call on the members of the European Task Force, the launch of which it supported in March 2006 (see EUROPE 9164). Following this approach, the Commission intends its work to be based on three strands: prevention and preparation, surveillance and detection, and response and recovery. Prevention and preparation: the stress in this first strand is on a greater level of awareness in all member states among the authorities responsible for security, the health sector, the research community and the private sector. Member states, with the support of the Commission, would be responsible for awareness-raising campaigns. Next, the Commission plans to create a code of professional conduct for students covering sensitive biological research, and compulsory scientific courses on biological research and bio-ethical research. Also planned are common minimum security standards for access to dangerously pathogens in laboratories and in the pharmaceutical industry, a European list of bio-agents identified as being dangerous and improving the European analytical capacity for reducing biological threats. The Commission also wonders whether researchers working with pathogens should be required to have security clearances. Improving surveillance capacity and detection: the Commission favours, for example, the creation of mobile bio-laboratories for early intervention and identification anywhere in Europe or internationally, thanks, among other things, to the exchange of pathogens, culture collection inventories and security of these collections. Given the lack of sufficient detection tools to test dangerous bio-substances and pathogens, the Commission hopes to develop such tools and build up its own capacity in order to strengthen its preparedness and also its bio-competitiveness. Response and recovery: according to the Commission, cooperation between member states' national health services, law enforcement agencies, rescue services and the military must be ensured both nationally and cross-border. It plans to hold training workshops at European level and between member states. Furthermore, regular training courses on preventing, preparing for, containing and responding to bio-terrorism could be organised by member states and the Commission. Response and recovery following a terrorist bio-attack or a natural disaster has to be built on capabilities, such as, for example, stocks of vaccines. The Commission, then, with member states, intends to develop a public-private business model for medical countermeasures, as there exists in the United States. (bc)