Biosolutions can deliver on the green agenda worldwide, but outdated EU regulation stands in the way of realizing the full potential of biosolutions, and furthermore, it weakens the competitiveness of Europe and European biosolutions companies. Leading industry organisations from 6 European countries want to change this – and today The European Biosolutions Coalition held the first “European High-Level Summit on Biosolutions” in Brussels, gathering stakeholders from EU institutions, member states and industry to discuss how to move forward fast for Europe not to fall behind.
The Coalition has published a Manifest and policy recommendations called “How Biosolutions can strengthen Europe’s sustainability, resilience and competitiveness” Policy recommendations published: How Biosolutions can strengthen Europe’s sustainability, resilience and competitiveness – DI (eubiocoalition.eu) offering both principles and concrete proposals for a new green and bio-based regulatory regime and suggestions for regulatory changes needed to boost the biosolutions industry and bring green solutions to the European market much faster.
Director of the European Biosolutions Coalition, Sofie Carsten Nielsen says:
“In just ten years, Europe can be free from polluting fossil materials, secure clean drinking water for everyone on the continent, and produce enough food for a growing world population in a sustainable way. All it requires is unlocking the untapped potential in biosolutions, and our recommendations are designed to do just that. We hope that the European Commission and decision makers will act fast and ensure companies access to the European market so we can finally embark on the bio revolution that we all need”.
Background
During the last decade progress within research and innovation in biological sciences and technology has created an untapped potential for biosolutions to help the world and Europe meet some of the greatest challenges of our time. When it comes to sustainable food systems, biodiversity, environment, and climate change the world faces major questions and challenges. Biosolutions hold some of the most important answers.
But today biosolutions are regulated by various regulatory regimes in the EU. These sets of rules have one thing in common: They are not designed with biosolutions in mind. For example, industrial biosolutions and biomanufacturing are subject to regulations aimed at regulating fossil-based substances. This results in outdated regulatory requirements that does not support innovative biosolutions and the acceleration of the green transition.
The system for regulatory renewal is far slower than other regions. Europe is the slowest in the world in terms of approval of new biological solutions, despite so much of the expertise and companies being founded in Europe.
As a result, the EU is lagging its global peers, losing both tax revenue and access to the innovative products of European origin to deliver on EU’s green ambitions.
