‘Finns are good news for biotech’

By Emily Smith

Date: 22/06/06

The Finnish EU presidency could be good for Europe's struggling biotechnology sector, according to participants at a meeting between ministers and industry in Helsinki on Tuesday (20 June).

On 1 July, Finland will take over from Austria the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers.

"Finland is quite positive about biotechnology and innovation," said Adeline Farrelly, of biotech umbrella group EuropaBio, after the conference. "We do think there will be great support for biotechnology from Finland."

Pekka Lindroos, chief counsellor in the Finnish industry ministry, said that, for Finland, biotechnology was a central part of the Lisbon Strategy.

The conference focused on healthcare biotechnology, a branch of science tackling diseases including Alzheimer's and taking up about 90% of the total biotech sector. But observers suggest that the Finnish presidency could also signal a small shift in favour of agricultural biotechnology - genetically modified (GM) crops.

Austria is openly opposed to GM technol-ogy and currently fighting a legal case against the Commission for the right to ban biotech crops in some regions.

Finland, on the other hand, though it only grows biotech crops for research, in the last two years has voted to approve five GM varieties.

Anti-GM lobbyists said they were prevented from joining in the Helsinki meeting and cast doubt on Finland's ability to manage the biotech debate.

"Meeting in secret to discuss issues of high public importance is an absolute disgrace and a bad sign of what is to come under the Finnish presidency of the EU," said Helen Holder from Friends of the Earth Europe (FOEE).

Holder said her application to join the conference was approved when she registered by phone using just her name, but then withdrawn following an email in which she had to state her organisation.

Lindroos said FOEE did not register for the conference in time. "We had to turn other people away as well; we were very fully booked up."

He added that GM technologies had taken up "less than 1% of the agenda this week".

Author says that according to participants at a meeting between ministers and industry in Helsinki on 20 June 2006, the Finnish EU Presidency could be good for Europe's struggling biotechnology sector.

European Commission: DG Enterprise and Industry: Industry index: Competitiveness in the Pharmaceuticals industry and Biotechnology http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/phabiocom/index_en.htm

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