Press Release

24/10/2005

European Group on Ethics finally balanced. MEPs welcome decision of Commission President Barroso on new nominations. Miroslav Mikolášik MEP and Peter Liese MEP

The chair of the working group on bioethics of the biggest political group in the European Parliament (EPP-ED), has welcomed Commission President Barroso's decision on the new nomination of the European Group on Ethics.

Barroso decided on the new mandate on Friday. The European Group on Ethics {European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE)} is a multidisciplinary and multinational group advising the European Commission at the request of the Commission. The Parliament and the Council may draw the Commission's attention to questions which they consider to be of major ethical importance.

The group exists for over ten years and is now newly composed as a result of the expiration of its mandate and the enlargement process.

The 15 new members of the group are the following:

Emmanuel Agius (MT), Diána Bánáti (HU), Anne Cambon-Thomsen (FR), Rafael Capurro (DE), Carlo Casini (IT), Inez De Beaufort (NL), Jozef Glasa (SK), Hille Haker (DE), Göran Hermerén (SE), Julian Kinderlerer (UK), Krzysztof Marczewski (PL), Paula Martinho da Silva (PT), Linda Nielsen (DK), Pere Puig Puigdomenech Rosell (ES), Günter Virt (DE).

Mikolášik and Liese stated: "Up to now, the EGE has been composed in a very unbalanced way. Most of the members supported a relatively unlimited freedom of research. This was particularly obvious in its statement on the patenting of human embryonic stem cells.

Only one member, Professor Virt from Vienna opposed the patenting. The other eleven members (up to now the group contained twelve members) supported the patenting. The EU's population surely diverges when it comes to the question of embryonic stem cell research. There are even quite a few supporters of embryonic stem cell research who are against patenting because they do not want to leave the matter to commercial interests. The lack of balance is shown by the fact that only one member of the EGE was against the patenting. One can therefore expect more balance in the newly composed group.

Many of the new members of the EGE stand for a very liberal position, e.g. the previous chairman, the Swede Göran Hermerén, the Dutch member Inez de Beaufort, Pere Puigdomenech Rosell from Spain, the Danish member Linda Nielsen and surely the British representative Kinderlerer. But in clear contrast to the previous situation there are also representatives of the opinion that there has to be ethical limits in research included in the group, e.g. the pharmacologist Jozef Glasa from Bratislava, the lawyer Carlo Casini from Italy, the German theologian Hille Haker and Professor Emanuel Agius from Malta. When these very different personalities in future agree on a common proposal, one can assume that the proposal is sustainable. That was unfortunately not the case in previous years".

For further Information:
Peter Liese MEP, Tel: +32 2 2847981, Fax: +32 2 2849981