The EU’s ambition to transform Europe to become more green, climate-neutral, sustainable and digitalised has been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The EU is now not only looking at ways to recover but also to invest in the future, enhancing its resilience while increasing its strategic autonomy.

The biotechnology sector has long been recognised as an essential part of the knowledge-based economy, and has grown rapidly in recent years. According to a study by the Bio-based Industries Consortium, Europe’s bioeconomy boasts a €2.4tn turnover and supports 18.5 million jobs.

Biotechnology applications can be split into three main categories: healthcare and pharmaceutical applications; agricultural and aquaculture applications and industrial processes and manufacturing.

As such, it is both obvious and necessary that the sector can play a critical role in addressing the current crisis and support our recovery. The bioeconomy, and its bio-based industries also go hand-in-hand with innovative cancer research. To give one specific example, biotechnology companies are developing advanced therapies that target cancer in its most rare and challenging forms.

“COVID-19 provides us with an opportunity to reflect on how the EU can support the biotech industry”

The Commission identified this within its Beating Cancer Plan roadmap, recognising that gene and cell therapies hold the potential to revolutionise cancer treatment and calling for measures that will help healthcare systems adapt to these novel treatments.

In the Special Committee on Beating Cancer, we are hoping to focus both on the innovative aspects of cancer research and applications and on raising awareness of preventative measures and improving cancer treatment in children. The biotech industry also has the potential to revolutionise the agricultural sector.

We need brave policies that will encourage this revolution. Although Europe has taken a careful approach when it comes to GMOs, we must bear in mind that farmers rely on imports to cover almost 70 percent of their required protein-rich crops. Those crops are increasingly consumed as human food, with an annual growth rate of almost seven percent globally. Related

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Supporting biotech in agriculture will enable products that can offer health benefits, such as lower carcinogenic potential and bio-fortification, while meeting increasing demand with enhanced shelf life and reduced food waste.

Biotech companies are also moving society towards a bio-based economy, accelerating the green transition and contributing to the achievement of the Paris Agreement objectives. To do this, the EU needs a fully circular economy.

The new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), adopted last spring, aims to make the economy fit for a green future, strengthening competitiveness while protecting the environment and giving new rights to consumers. The CEAP focuses on design and production, with the aim of reducing the EU’s consumption footprint and doubling the EU’s circular material use rate in the coming decade while boosting economic growth.

However, I believe that some points of the new plan need to be revaluated to address the COVID-19 situation. Let us not forget that the new CEAP was published on the same day that the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

COVID-19 has provided us with an opportunity to reflect on how the European institutions can support the biotech industry and help unleash its potential by adopting measures that encourage and foster scientific innovation. Growing our bioeconomy will ensure that the EU becomes an inviting and vibrant place to invest and do business.

By supporting innovation and spurring economic growth, the bioeconomy can provide new jobs while also ensuring sustainable development, protecting public health and the environment.

Source: The Parliament Magazine

Agriculture ministers agree on plans for green food production but want scientific impact assessments before policy becomes law, and are calling on the European Commission to publish its study on precision breeding.

The EU should make use of innovative breeding technologies to boost sustainability of food production, agriculture ministers agreed on Monday, as they gave their stamp of approval to the European Commission’s ‘Farm to Fork’ plan to reduce the use of fertilisers by 30 per cent and turn 25 per cent of agricultural land over to organic farming.

The ministers called for the use of “new innovative ingredients and techniques” to boost sustainable food production, as long as they are shown to be safe for humans, animals and the environment.

This was with reference to precision breeding using gene editing, which enables genetically modified organisms to be generated without introducing genes from other species. As things stand, the technology cannot be used in the EU, following a 2018 ruling by the European Court of Justice, which founds genome editing is subject to the 2001 EU directive banning genetically modified organisms.

Researchers in 120 institutes across Europe have asked the commission to reverse the court ruling, arguing precision breeding and genome editing are a speeded-up equivalent of traditional breeding techniques and could increase the genetic diversity of crop plants, reduce use of pesticides, and further the development of healthy food.

Agriculture ministers want the commission to complete its study of the status of novel genomic techniques under EU legislation by April 2021.

The commission’s view is that precision farming technologies should underpin the transition to eco-friendly food production. Frans Timmermans, the commission’s executive vice-president for the European Green Deal said the EU aims to give farmers the tools to adopt precision agriculture and to leverage scientific discoveries to optimise seeds.

“That’s how we limit our dependency on pesticides,” Timmermans told delegates at the EU Green Week conference last week. “Going to ecological farming doesn’t mean we all have to munch on grass and live in caves, we need to use the latest technology to get us there,” he said.

The EU’s plan for ecological food production has been criticised by US Secretary for agriculture Sonny Perdue, who said Europe is reluctant to use new technologies in agriculture. “The US is worried that the farm to fork and biodiversity strategies will be extremely trade-prohibitive and jeopardise agricultural output,” Perdue said in a web conference with EU agriculture commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.

In pursuit of farm to fork objectives, the EU will allocate €8.9 billion under the upcoming ninth framework programme, Horizon Europe, for projects on food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture, fisheries, aquaculture and the environment.

Some of the Horizon Europe funding will be funnelled through a partnership for safe and sustainable food systems, which will help member states to work together on an EU-wide governance mechanism for research and innovation in sustainable agriculture. 

Horizon Europe will also have a research mission focused on improving soil health, and a dedicated partnership on research, aiming to reduce use of pesticides and antimicrobial drugs in agriculture by 2030.

While the farm to fork plan is not part of any binding legislation yet, member states want the commission to do “scientifically-sound ex-ante impact assessments” before translating the ambitions into legislation. For the moment, member states are in favour of a “prudent and responsible” use of pesticides, antimicrobials and fertilisers to be the basis of EU legislative proposals under the farm to fork strategy.

Agriculture ministers said the objectives and targets of the farm to fork strategy should be included in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) national strategic plans through country-specific recommendations. However, the commission has confirmed that the recommendations are not legally binding.

At least in theory, the transition to the new food production paradigm will be underpinned by a reform of CAP, which MEPs are voting on today.

Greens MEPs say amendments proposed by conservatives, socialists and liberals, which allow the commission to disburse 60 per cent of CAP direct payments to farmers without stronger sustainability targets, will “water down” the commission’s ambitions.

“Without binding targets for more climate protection, less pesticides in the fields and less antibiotics in livestock farming, the CAP will stand as the very antithesis to the purpose of the Green Deal,” said Greens MEP Bas Eickhout. “The commission should revisit the CAP proposals to ensure that it includes both the biodiversity and farm to fork strategies so that it fits within the promise of the Green Deal,” he said.

On the other side, conservative MEPs said on Monday that the EU cannot increase sustainability “by forbidding stuff”, such as pesticides and fertilisers.

Source: ScienceBusiness