The Commission's 3rd progress report on the European strategy for life sciences and biotechnology states that 2004 seems to have been a year of consolidation rather than growth for European biotechnology. The report highlights some progress since the last report but states that the situation regarding European biotechnology and its competitiveness still needs to be improved, mainly because of:
- persisting delays in the transposition of the directive (98/44/EC) on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions (20 out of 25 member states have transposed it);
- member states' poor implementation of the new legislative framework governing GMOs;
- poor R&D spending.
In the report, the Commission announced that a reflection on the role of life science and biotechnology in the Lisbon Agenda was necessary. Accordingly, the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) launched, on 21 October 2005, a study on the social, economic and environmental consequences and challenges of modern biotechnology. The Council and all stakeholders are invited to participate in this reflection process.
The study aims also to increase public awareness and understanding of life sciences and biotechnology.
