Industry associations and European governments have called on the European Commission (EC; Brussels) to ease the regulatory approval regime for biotechnology products and to push for EU–wide implementation of a revised patenting system. These and other suggestions have been considered for a new policy, the “Strategic vision on life sciences and biotechnology,” drafted jointly by the EC's Secretariat General and the Enterprise, Environment, Consumer Policy, External Relations, Agriculture, and Research units. It was expected to be adopted by a commissioners' meeting at the end of January, as part of the so-called “Lisbon process” launched at the EU summit at Lisbon in 2000, which aims to make Europe a highly competitive knowledge-based economy within ten years (Nat. Biotechnol. 19, 1000, 2001).
Details of the new strategy were unpublished as Nature Biotechnology went to press. But Christian Siebert, a senior official at the EC's Enterprise Unit, told Nature Biotechnology it follows “a comprehensive approach of tackling all issues relevant to biotechnology—regulation, research, competitiveness, public opinion and involvement, ethics, and international matters.” The most ticklish issue to be addressed is Europe's ambiguous attitude to GM foods. The strategy declares that member states should be willing to grant marketing approval to GM foods unless there are scientific reasons to withhold it, in accordance with EU law, says Siebert. “We have to move away from the current situation where EU legislation is not being applied, in other words away from the de facto moratorium on GM approvals,” he told Nature Biotechnology. “But the situation with member states is delicate, and we needed to find careful language.”
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution