Communiqués de presse

Austria and Finland boost Competitiveness of EU Biotech in 2006 EU Presidencies meeting

EU Biotechnology Policy Round Table was co-organized today 20 June in Helsinki, Finland by the 2006 EU Presidencies Austria and Finland. It was the fourth in a series and brought together some 150 competent biotech competitiveness authorities from EU Member States, the European Commission and industry representatives.

Biotech is a core part of the knowledge based economy vision pictured by the EU Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs. Challenges such as global climate change and aging increase demands for biotechnology applications to deliver efficient and sustainable solutions in the near future.

The implementation of The Life Sciences and Biotechnology – a strategy for Europe adopted by the European Commission in 2002 is advancing. However, global competitors are moving ahead with high speed. It is still very hard for EU biotech companies to raise risk capital to finance expensive R&D efforts. The development of the regulatory system has progressed unevenly and with national differences. It is difficult to inform citizens interested in biosafety and biosecurity in understandable language about the many applications offered by modern biotechnology and about the scientific methods followed in approving products for the internal market.

The Round Table called for wider co-ordination in different policy fields in Member States and in the European Commission in order to ensure that individual measures together form a coherent policy. The policy should be compatible with the vision for development of a competitive biotechnology in the EU with a rich variety of applications to benefit the society and the economy. Different types of incentives are needed in order to increase sustainable use of renewable biomass in different applications.

Simultaneously, enhanced demand for products and processes based on advanced knowledge and increasing value-added should be promoted. Short term market price signals for e.g. energy use of biomass driven by different policy measures such as emission trading can fundamentally distort needed long-term investment planning by industry. The regulatory system has to be improved for better predictability and a culture for venture capital activities in biotech has to be nurtured.

More attention should be paid to promoting interest in and demand for biotech processes and products amongst different users and consumers in tandem with technology development. We have gained a lot of experience in Finland e.g. on integrated raw-material use also based on biotech processes, noted Ms Paula Nybergh, Director General for Technology Policy of  the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Finland, who chaired the concluding session looking at next steps in EU Biotech strategy. - Also, benefits would follow in medical applications of biotechnology, an area that  has been a priority in R&D investment, from closer integration of user interests or the entire health care system into technology development, she said

Michael Losch, Director General for Economic Policy in the Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour, in his morning statement stressed the problems arising from Europe's Biotechnology being not as mature as in competing countries. - We encounter a severe lack of finance at some stages along the life cycle of the enterprises. Viable solutions for enhancing the attractiveness of firms for investors are to be sought as well as forms of good governance in leveraging private money through the use of public money.

For further information please contact

Chief Counsellor Pekka Lindroos,
Ministry of Trade and Industry,
Finland,
+358 1606 3597 or +358 413 5522

Dipl.-Ing. Peter Schintlmeister,
Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour,
Austria,
+43 699 19 24 57 21

Communications officer Satu Ikäheimo,
Ministry of Trade and Industry, Finland,
+358 9 1606 3577 or +358 50 431 6519