The Slovenian government on Thursday decided to endorse the new proposal for the EU's 7th Framework Programme on research, reversing an earlier decision to oppose it on the grounds that it paves the way for EU funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Government spokesman Valentin Hajdinjak said after the cabinet session that the government took into account the opinion of the national commission for ethics in medicine, which said that the programme observes stricter ethical standards than Slovenia has enshrined in its legislation.
Slovenia had been in a group of eight countries that opposed the proposal. The reversal means that the group no longer has a sufficient number of votes for a veto when the programme is put to vote at Monday's session of the EU Competitiveness Council.
The sticking point was article 6 of the programme, which deals with ethical issues related to the research of cloning from human stem cells.
The commission for ethics agrees with the new wording of the article, as it allows it to continue to deal with proposals for such research in Slovenia, thereby upholding high ethical standards demanded by the Slovenian legislation.
Moreover, the proposal does not permit the funding of research whose goal is the cloning of humans, changing the human genetic sequence or the production of human embryos destined exclusively for research or sale, the government said in a press release.
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