BRUSSELS, Belgium - Some shape is starting to emerge for the management structure for biotechnology issues in the newly reorganized European Commission, which now is getting down to work - but there still are some question marks. In particular, the risk of conflicting opinions on biotechnology within the Commission seems to remain as high as ever.

One of the key figures for biotechnology will be Philippe Busquin, the former Belgian minister who now is research commissioner, and who will be responsible for pushing the backing for innovation. He has a scientific background, having worked as a physicist before going into politics. He oversees a renewed research directorate general with an experienced team in biotechnology research.

The department remains under the control of Jorma Routti, a Finn who directly presides over a specific life sciences group of directorates, covering biotechology and medical science. Swede Bruno Hansen heads up one directorate responsible for coordination, overseeing a horizontal unit under Frenchman Etienne Magnien, a unit responsible for consultation under Englishman Timothy Hall, and an administrative unit under Mario Soares de Aires.

Rainer Gerold of Germany heads up another directorate, with Irishman Mark Cantley as an advisor (back at the Commission after his stint as head of biotechnology at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris). Fellow Irishman Liam Breslin heads a unit on health, food and environment, Xavier Goenaga Beldarrain of Spain heads a unit on agriculture and agro-industry, and Alfredo Aguilar Romanillos of Spain heads up the cell factory unit.

The third directorate is temporarily being run by Peter Kind of Austria, advised by Bruno Schmitz of Germany, and containing a unit on infectious diseases under Italian Umberto Bertazzoni, a unit on the aging population under Peter Kind, and a unit covering infrastructure under Marc Hallen of France.

Strong backing for industry also should come from Erkki Liikanen, a Finn who has taken over as commissioner for enterprise and innovation. Among the wide range of units he has inherited in the Commission reorganization is a directorate on consumer goods which includes a food production and biotechnology unit under Gwenole Cozi gou of France, a pharmaceuticals unit under Frenchman Philippe Brunet, and a foodstuffs unit under Belgian Patrick Deboyser (who used to run the pharmaceuticals unit). But Liikanen's enterprise directorate general is still to undergo full restructuring in November.

However, the approach to biotechnology also will be heavily influenced by Irishman David Byrne, who has been made commissioner with newly expanded responsibilities for health and consumer protection. His department includes units on risk evaluation, consumer policy, ethical questions, food products and health, consumer and environmental safety, scientific advice on health, food quality, and animal feedstuffs - all of which are expected to have input in Europe's current internal debates on biotechnology, and all of which are likely to take a precautionary line.

Similarly, Margot Wallstrom, the Swede who has taken over as commissioner responsible for environment, heads up a strong department with numerous units responsible for environmental protection, including one specifically dedicated to industrial risks of biotechnology. And halfway between the pro- and anti- biotechnology factions that the new Commission will have to take account of (and to some extent reflects) sits Franz Fischler, the Austrian who has been reappointed commissioner for agriculture, and who will retain a strong interest in and influence on the subject through the debates on genetically modified crops.

There still is no clear decision as to how the new Commission will resolve the differing views within the departments that have overlapping responsibilities in the biotechnology area. Significantly, the commission has just agreed in its new work program up to the end of this year to produce two new position papers on biotechnology, which should appear in late November, and may help clarify the broad European Union thinking on biotechnology. Meanwhile, the confusion over responsibilities is likely to continue. Nor, at a more technical level, is it yet clear who will have responsibility for activities such as ELSA - the commission's program on the Ethical Legal and Social Aspects of the Life Sciences and Technologies, which is aimed at analyzing the ethical and social issues raised by specific applications of biotechnology, biomedicine and health research.