EU Biotech Act: no guts no glory?

In December 2025, the European Commission unveiled Part I of the EU Biotech Act, a long-awaited signal that Europe aims to unlock biotech’s full potential. During the holidays, the Dutch government dove into the EU proposals to draft its assessment, a so-called BNC-fiche. And, as the Netherlands does not shy away from communicating its strong ambition when it comes to biotech, hollandbio had high hopes that the Dutch government would call for even bolder moves, including proper EU and national resourcing and a broader scope of the Act. The current act still risks falling short of being the breakthrough the EU needs in a highly competitive global landscape. But unfortunately, we felt the official assessment of the EU Biotech Act Part I to be somewhat disappointing.

As expected, the Dutch fiche does embrace biotech’s role in strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, along with attention to workability, harmonisation, and Dutch best practices. But at the same time, the overall stance is surprisingly cautious, in contrast to the previously published broad, forward‑leaning Dutch non‑paper and national biotech vision. Rather than seizing Europe’s opportunity to lead, the fiche places significant weight on feasibility, governance and constraints. Important points, certainly, but for a country that wants to lead in biotech by 2040, we expected stronger follow‑through from ambition to action.

That’s why hollandbio remains fully engaged, contributing to Parliamentary consultations, advising policymakers and feeding insights into both Part I and Part II of the act. Our overall goal, and corresponding asks, remains unchanged: an EU Biotech Act that works end-to-end for health, food and industrial biotech. Read our full analysis here.