Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-17-Speech-1-088"
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"en.20031117.6.1-088"2
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".
Mr President, my group has given me another two minutes, and so I can deal with a number of the questions put by some of my fellow-Members.
For a start, it is unfortunate that not only the Commissioner, but also a number of Members of this House have asserted that the adoption of Mr Nisticò’s proposal would make research impossible or – to put the charge in a diluted form – that we would then be entirely dependent on the United States. Can you confirm, Commissioner, that Sweden is situated in Europe rather than in the USA?
Most of the stem cell lines listed in the NIH register come from Sweden. I once took the trouble to consult the people who manufactured them. Let me quote from Professor Lars Hamberger, whose unequivocal response, in an e-mail, to the question as to whether these stem cell lines were available to European researchers was as follows: ‘At present, we have 24 stem cell lines, out of which 20 are relatively well characterised. In the case that European researchers want to get access to these cell lines they can apply to us, and if the respective country laws and regulations permit export we can arrange, and we have already distributed a few cell lines to Europe.’
So these cells are available; I have had similar answers from the other institutes. Mr Nisticò has again drawn my attention to the fact that his proposal actually goes further than the Americans’. This is not just about cells, but about cell lines and a later date, so I ask you to desist from asserting that all research would be made impossible.
Let me conclude with a thought that I ask Members of this House to take on board. Many of us have mutually contradictory interpretations of what subsidiarity means. I ask you, though, to imagine for one brief moment that we are dealing with a different type of research, for example, research involving cruelty to animals, specifically primates or anthropoid apes. In that event, I think the arguments would be reversed. What is absolutely vital here is that, day after day, the Commission says ‘no’ to research projects.
I agree with Mr Linkohr that we must make more funding available for research, but, for as long as we are unable to fund uncontroversial projects, we have to think even more carefully than the Commission suggests about why we want to support controversial ones. For that reason, I believe that Mr Nisticò’s proposal really is a good compromise."@en1
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