No agreement reached on EU stem cell funding

The ongoing debate on whether European Union (EU) funds will be able to be used for human embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research has failed to be reconciled today. The Council of Ministers has failed to agree on funding in a final attempt to resolve the issue before a moratorium on funding comes to an end at the end of this year.

The moratorium was originally imposed during negotiations on the European research funding programme (Framework Programme 6), to allow the European Commission, Parliament and Council to debate the issues. In July, the European Commission proposed to allow EU-funded research using ES cell lines newly derived from stored human embryos, but only in countries where ES cell research is not prohibited by national laws.

Last month, the European Parliament voted to allow ES cell research to be funded, rejecting an amendment that said EU-funded research could only take place on embryos created before 27 June 2002. This left the final vote with the Council of Ministers, made up of representatives of each member state. It was originally scheduled to vote on the issue last week, but the vote was delayed.

Today, the debate at the Council of Ministers was halted because a 'sufficient degree of support' for the proposal could not be found. Representatives of Germany, Italy and Austria said they were strongly opposed to EU funds being used for destructive research on embryos. Between them, the three countries had enough votes to block the proposal. Portugal also opposed the Commission's proposal but offered a compromise whereby ES cells derived from left-over IVF embryos before today could be used. Other countries, including Britain, the Netherlands, Greece, Sweden and Finland were against creating a cut-off date, saying that this would hinder research.

A spokesman for the EU Research Commissioner Philip Busquin said that the lack of agreement would mean that the Commission will have to vet proposals to use EU funds on a 'case by case basis' after the moratorium ends. But German officials said that they expected the moratorium to last for as long as the debate continued.