LOGOLOGOLOGOLOGO
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Who we are
      • Governance
      • Staff
      • Vacancies
  • Members
    • EuropaBio Members
    • About Membership
  • How we work
    • Healthcare Biotechnology Council
      • Patient BioForum
      • Study – Impact of the EU’s General Pharmaceutical Legislation
    • Industrial Biotechnology Council
      • EFIB
      • Microorganisms
    • National Associations Council
    • SME Platform
    • Biomanufacturing Platform
      • Biotechnology in our Lives
  • Activities
    • 25 Years of Innovation
    • The EU Biotech Act
    • European Biotech Week
    • EU Projects
      • PRIMED Project
      • APROVALS Project
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
  • Library
Become a member
✕

EFIB Rotterdam Statement 2023

27/10/2023
EFIB 2023 Rotterdam Statement

Introduction: A point of reflection and renewal for biotechnology in Europe
As the EU looks ahead to the European elections in 2024, with a new EU Commission mandate and Work Programme, EuropaBio reviews European strategies and ambitions where biotechnology plays a key role. Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address of 13 September announced an ‘EU Biotech and Biomanufacturing Initiative’ under the heading of ‘An Economy that Works for People’. Europe needs to be ambitious for this, particularly when considering the ongoing changes in global perspective on biotechnology which were highlighted in the 2022 Vilnius Statement.

The announced EU initiative is the latest indication of a greater point of recognition and acceleration for biotechnology: the 2023 announcement of the STEP (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) regulation prioritises biotechnology alongside clean tech and deep and digital tech whilst the EU Commission listed biotechnology as one of four critical technologies for Europe2. Earlier in 2023, the Swedish Council Presidency adopted conclusions on the bioeconomy3, and the Spanish Council Presidency has made the New Genomic Techniques for plants file a priority.

Building on this momentum, the EFIB Rotterdam Statement of 2023 provides a priority pathway for biotechnology to support Europe’s global leadership, resilience and competitiveness.

Industrial biotechnology for a sustainable and resilient global Europe
Industrial biotechnology uses enzymes, microorganisms and living cells to make biobased products from renewable raw materials. This is a key enabler of the EU’s transition from a fossil-based economy to a green and competitive bioeconomy in multiple sectors, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and feed, fragrances, detergents, paper and pulp, textiles and bioenergy.

A global technology race is underway in the industrial biotechnology sector. The winners will lead global manufacturing and trade in several sectors. Their economies will be more competitive, sustainable and resilient. By reducing their dependency on non-renewable resources and harnessing a broader range of food and feed production technologies, they will strengthen their strategic autonomy and food security.

Despite its strong science and research base, and the EU Commission’s recent announcements on its ambition for European leadership in new technologies, Europe now needs urgent and immediate actions to create impact from these good intentions and to reinforce its competitiveness.

The EU must start with a bioproduction scale-up coupled with a regulatory environment that encourages investments in research and development and which fosters innovation. The EU must also provide
incentives that attract the best in class for skills, in both business and biomanufacturing.

EFIB Rotterdam Statement – a renewed direction for Europe
The inaugural 2021 EFIB Vienna Statement set the stage with three long term asks: 1) Modernising regulation and policy; 2) Education and awareness and 3) Financing innovation. The 2022 EFIB Vilnius Statement built on these asks, with specific priorities. The 2023 EFIB Rotterdam Statement focuses on Europe’s global position in the context of the 2024 EU elections.

Ask 1: Modernising regulation and policy: enabling impact
Political awareness of new genomic techniques (NGTs) has been steadily increasing over recent years. However, current discussions on NGTs for plants and the modernisation of the EU GM framework must be extended to microorganisms in the next mandate, as there is a critical and urgent need for a science-based, pragmatic, future-proof and regulatory framework covering the use of microorganisms across all sectors.

Biotechnology and biomanufacturing, by their very nature, offer products and processes that can be implemented across sectors. Enabling regulation must therefore be underpinned by coherent over-arching policy frameworks across industrial applications. This requires re-positioning and connectedness across EU institutions.

Following the proposed new regulatory framework for NGT plants, the EU Commission should publish a proposal for additional policy actions for microorganisms by Q4 2024.

Ask 2: Education and awareness: enabling a global perspective for Europe
Resilience and strategic autonomy are global buzz words. This is achieved through multiple pathways, beyond the essential local foundation of capacity and skills. Europe must ensure that it plays a vital role within global supply chains and value-added networks at strategic locations to remain a global decision maker. This will enable Europe to be competitive and resilient whilst strengthening global supply chains to the expected standards and equitability.

Europe should be an active player in global value chains and value-added networks by establishing strategic priorities for European biomanufacturing.

Ask 3: Financing innovation: enabling technologies
The European biotechnology sector has a strong focus on research, innovation, and sustainable economic growth. This is manifested by the Circular Bio-Based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) which accelerates the development and up-take at scale of bio-based innovative solutions. The European Innovation Council also recognises the challenges for growth in small companies, with a combination of grant and equity mechanisms. Both programmes highlight the critical need for sustainable and long-term biotechnology sectoral growth: a clear investment pathway from R&D to market access is required to scale up upcoming companies in Europe.

Sustainable financing needs to be aligned with overall sustainability and industrial ambitions. It needs to foster innovation, and be bold and farsighted in supporting investment into implementation at industrial scale, with resulting benefits manifested from Europe’s ambitions in biotechnology.

A clear investment pathway from R&D to scaled market access is needed to advance technologies to maturity whilst supporting activities within Europe.

EFIB Rotterdam Statement 2023


Download
Share
Francesca Degli Agostini
Francesca Degli Agostini

Related posts

07/07/2025

EuropaBio Position on the Critical Medicines Act


Read more
03/07/2025

Life Sciences Strategy Embraces Biotech for Global Impact


Read more
25/06/2025

Hawkwood Biotech joins EuropaBio: Supporting Industrial Biotech with their Critical Challenges


Read more

Important links

  • EuropaBio Position on the Critical Medicines Act
  • Life Sciences Strategy Embraces Biotech for Global Impact

Categories in our Newsroom

EBIO-white

EuropaBio represents corporate and associate members across sectors, plus national and regional biotechnology associations which, in turn, represent over 5000 biotech companies, 4600 out of them are SMEs.

Contact us

Extra links

Members
Staff
Privacy policy
Legal & cookies
Events
Newsroom

Become a member

Media pack

© 2025 Europabio. All Rights Reserved. Designed by EYAS
Become a member

Algal Omega 3

Algal Omega-3 is an innovative feed product for aquaculture. It reduces the impact on climate change by 30-40% compared to fish oil and saves 60 tons of wild fish for every ton of Algal Omega-3 used.

Cheese

Cheese is a vegetarian product thanks to biotechnology. Biotechnology is also essential to produce lactose- or cholesterol-free cheese, as well as alternative proteins.

Clothes

Clothes made from alternative fibres produced by microorganisms can be 8x stronger than steel, 100% recyclable, biodegradable and replace fossil-fuel based or resource-intensive textiles.

Vitamin B2

The biomanufacturing of Vitamin B2 led to the reduction of 75% of fossil raw materials and 50% operating costs, compared to the chemical process. Vitamin B2 is used in the food, feed or healthcare sectors.

Detergents

Enzymes and biosurfactancts are alternative ingredients that improve the performance of detergents, while leading to water and energy savings and reductions in CO2 emissions and water toxicity.

Insulin

Insulin is one of the most widely known biopharmaceutical. Biotechnology revolutionised its manufacturing process and led to the development of new types of insulin through r-DNA technology.