BioWorld International Correspondent

BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union leaders gave their explicit backing to biotechnology at their summit meeting last week in Stockholm, Sweden.

The heads of state and government of the 15 EU member states - meeting as the European Council, the EU's top body - put their names to conclusions that stressed the need for "harnessing new technologies." They agreed to develop a "strategy for an integrated approach to economic and social development [that] includes promoting new technologies by strengthening the community research and development policy and making particular efforts in new technologies, especially biotechnology."

This is the most ringing endorsement yet from EU leaders of the merits of biotechnology, and comes on top of support expressed over recent weeks by the European Parliament and the European Commission. The support from the EU summit was all the sweeter since it is, ultimately, the EU leaders who decide what really happens in Europe.

The summit also backed research and innovation: "Europe must do more to harness research, finance and business talent to ensure that European ideas reach the European marketplace first," said the formal conclusions.

Frontier technologies, "especially biotechnology," were flagged as needing support: "The ability of EU businesses to embrace technologies will depend on factors such as research, entrepreneurship, a regulatory framework encouraging innovation and risk-taking, including community-wide industrial property protection at globally competitive costs, and the availability of willing investors, particularly at an early stage," the conclusions said.

"The Commission, together with the Council, will examine measures required to utilize the full potential of biotechnology and strengthen the European biotechnology sector's competitiveness in order to match leading competitors," agreed the EU leaders, although they added the rider that the EU must ensure "that those developments occur in a manner which is healthy and safe for consumers and the environment, and consistent with common fundamental values and ethical principles."

EuropaBio, the European association for bioindustries, welcomed what it interpreted as the Council's confirmation that a competitive biotechnology-based industry will be a key requirement and asset for Europe in the 21st century.

EuropaBio Chairman Erik Tambuyzer said, "We are pleased that the European Council sees biotechnology as an important part of the process of making Europe the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world."

EuropaBio members were particularly pleased to see the focus shift from information technologies, which EU leaders have backed at previous summits, to an explicit recognition of the need for measures to utilize the full potential of biotechnology and to strengthen the competitiveness of the biotechnology-based industry.

Tambuyzer added, "Our industries are fully prepared to help create the conditions for reducing the technological gap between Europe and other parts of the world in the area of life sciences." EuropaBio has declared on several occasions that it fully supports all measures to ensure that the development of biotechnology progresses " . . . in a manner which is healthy and safe for the consumers and the environment, and consistent with fundamental values and ethical principles."