On Wednesday, the Central Electoral Commission registered an initiative by EU citizens and issued papers for signature collection for Lithuanian citizens to be able to support the proposal to ban EU funding for scientific research involving stem cells.
20,000 signatures are expected to be collected in Lithuania.
Based on EU legal acts, initiators have to collect at least 9,000 signatures by 10 May 2013.
In Lithuania, an EU citizens initiative is registered for the first time.
The idea to prevent the EU from funding stem cell research was proposed in Italy last May. Based on the EU aquis, at least 1 million signatures need to be collected in a year in at least seven EU member states to oblige the European Commission to initiate a legal act on banning research involving stem cells.
Kęstutis Danielius Rimkevičius, one of the representatives of the EU initiative "One of Us," says the legal act is needed, as currently nothing protects the embryo.
One of the ways to get stem cells for controversial research is to take them from human embryos in the early stage of development, which leads to embryonic death.
