The text of the sixth framework programme for technological research and development, approved by the Council at the beginning of June, provides for the possibility of the EU financing research projects on stem cells if they conform to the requisite of ‘patentability’ and if the final objective is to improve human health. The governments of Austria, Germany, Italy and Ireland, albeit with different nuances, have repeatedly expressed their firm opposition to any suggestion that an EU programme should finance research on human embryos. The Danish presidency has contacted the competent Ministers in the fifteen European capitals to find a solution and prevent an impasse in the Council which could have the result of blocking or at least delaying the conclusion of the procedure for the adoption of the sixth R&D programme (the vote on the specific programmes and on the procedures for tendering bids has still to take place). The question is now on the table of Coreper, the Committee of permanent representatives of the governments of the member states, which has been commissioned to sound out the possibilities for agreement, the terms of which still seem uncertain, in view of the ethical implications of stem cell research. If agreement is not reached, the final discussion would be deferred to the European summit. The Council of ministers for research is due to meet on 30 September, while the new EU research programme, endowed with a budget equivalent to 17.5 billion euros for the period 2002/2003, equivalent to 3.9% of the entire EU budget, is scheduled for November.
