Germany, Austria and other nations opposed to EU funding of human embryonic stem cell research proposed an EU funding ban this month in Brussels at a meeting of the EU's 25 national science ministers, raising concerns that the minority group could force nations to remove this funding from the newest budget, even for scientists in countries where the research is legal.The six nations -- including also Italy, Poland, Malta and Slovakia -- failed to win additional backing at the meeting for a funding ban, but do hold enough combined voting power in the Council of science ministers to form a so-called "blocking minority." This means they could halt enactment of the EU's next science funding program for 2007-13, known as Framework Programme 7 (FP7), unless wording is added to the final FP7 document that would ban EU funding of human embryonic stem cell research.Under Framework Programme 6 (FP6)...

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