Stem cell issue could derail FP7 at the 11th hour

The European Union’s €54 billion research budget for the next seven years may not be approved in time for the beginning of next year – if Slovenia carries out its threat on Monday to join a blocking minority of countries opposed to the inclusion of stem cell research in the overall spending package, people close to the debate said on Thursday.
 
Until now, the ethical debate over the use of stem cells in research has been less intense in Europe than in the United States, where President Bush vetoed a Congress proposals for federal spending on stem cell research on Wednesday.
 
But talk of a change of position by Slovenia has raised fears that the stem cell issue may prevent European legislators from agreeing the entire budget for 2007-2013 in time to be implemented at the beginning of next year.
 
“The Slovenian government has raised worries about including stem cell research in the budget at recent meetings,” said Timo Haapalehto, councillor for research at the Finnish permanent representation to the European Union. Finland currently occupies the six-month rotating presidency of the Union.
 
Italian debate

Meanwhile, the Italian parliament debated the issue of stem cell research late Wednesday, and on Thursday agreed not to stand in the way of devoting European research money to stem cell research.
 
Italy is one of seven countries that signed a declaration at the end of last year calling for the exclusion of stem cell research form European spending. The other six are Malta, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Poland and Slovakia.
 
But Italy withdrew its signature from the declaration. when the government of Silvio Berlusconi lost to the centre-left coalition headed by former European Commission president Romano Prodi last month.
 
The debate in the Italian Parliament Wednesday made no changes to this revised position of the new Italian government, said Manuel Jacoangeli, a spokesman for the Italian representation in Brussels.
 
Although Slovenia carries less voting weight than Italy, it would still provide enough votes to create a blocking minority along with the other six countries, said Haapalehto. “It would be possible to block any decision, even without Italy,” he said.
 
Out of time?

If science and research ministers fail to sign off on the seven-year research programme, called Framework Programme 7 or FP7, then they will not allow the European Parliament enough time to hold a second debate on the shape of the budget agreed by national governments in the autumn, said Antonia Mochan, a spokeswoman on science and research topics at the European Commission.
 
“If they fail to reach a common position on Monday this could create a serious delay,” she said. But she added that there will be a lot of pressure on countries not to scupper the research budget timetable.
 
“Whether those countries that have signed the declaration are ready to block the budget has yet to be seen,” Mochan said.
 
European religious groups have attacked plans to spend around one percent of the Union’s research budget on stem cell research, but have had little sway over the majority view that the research is vital for a wide range of human health research, including treatments for diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, which are on the rise across Europe’s ageing population.
 
Framework Programme 7, due to begin in January 2007, will assign roughly 1 per cent of the overall research budget to embryonic stem cell research in countries that permit it, if the European Commission gets its way.
 
The Commission, the EU’s executive body, has proposed adopting the same approach to embryonic stem cell research in FP7 to the one used in the previous research budget, FP6, which was agreed in 2001.
 
The status quo it hopes to maintain allows stem cell research using embryos that would otherwise be destroyed, such as those created during in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment. The scientists would have to get approval for their research from a scientific committee, as well as two ethics committees, in order to benefit from EU funds.