De Donnea calls for independent EU satellite surveillance following US terrorist attacks
The President of the Research Council under the Belgian Presidency of the EU, François-Xavier de Donnea, has said that the recent terrorist attacks in the USA reinforce the need for an independent EU satellite surveillance system. Speaking to CORDIS News at the Belgian Presidency event 'Opening European research to the world' on 18 September, M. de Donnea said the recent atrocities, and the likelihood of US military reprisals, strengthened the case for initiatives such as the Galileo European satellite navigation system. Belgium is strongly supportive of this initiative in line with the prioritisation of space research under the Belgian Presidency. M. de Donnea explained: 'I think that the recent attacks strengthen the case for all systems which make it possible to better monitor security. It's especially important for Europe to be independent from the United States in terms of security monitoring because we cannot have...a completely independent foreign policy if we are dependent on somebody else to listen to what's happening or to look at what's happening in the world.' He added: 'So I think that not only from an environmental and agricultural point of view, but also from the point of view of our security and of the possibility for Europe to have an independent, autonomous international policy we must have satellite observation systems that are as sophisticated as the most sophisticated ones in the world.' M. de Donnea also told CORDIS News that despite recent moves to clarify EU stem cell and GM food legislation, public understanding of the implications of biotechnology research is hazy: 'I think the public has only a very vague awareness of what it is all about - it's so technical that only the scientific community can have an opinion on this. I think the public wants the scientific community to avoid taking measures which would infringe upon basic ethical principles -nobody wants human cloning, to copy human beings - that's one example.' He said the public must trust the experts when it comes to the wider implications of research in this area: 'The public is worried about ethics in general but neither the public nor myself can really, unless you are a biotechnologist, have a very definitive opinion for the moment on the matter. So I think we must also trust experts in the field, who are worried about ethics, to tell us how far we can go without infringing upon fundamental ethical principles, philosophical principles or human rights.' He added that Europe 'has a more liberal position than the United States' with regards to stem cell research, saying some work in this area is important 'not to create monsters, but to help medicine and to help the fight against some rare diseases to progress.'