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ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

: : About the issue

More than 12.1 million animals, including mice, rabbits, primates, dogs, cats and fish, are used annually in animal experiments throughout the EU.

: : What is the current situation?

The European Parliament held its much anticipated first reading plenary vote on the revision of Directive 86/609 (the Animal Experimentation Directive) on 5 May 2009.

MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Neil Parish report, thereby adopted a rather cautious approach: restricting animal use, but without groundbreaking progress. Click here to read Eurogroup's press release following the vote.

Eurogroup and its members are currently monitoring the developments in the trialogue meetings between the Commission, Council and Parliament on the new proposal.

: : What is Eurogroup calling for?

Eurogroup had been urging the European Commission to publish the new legislation as a matter of urgency for a significant amount of time and is pleased to see it has finally been published.

Eurogroup called for the revised directive to:

	apply to all animals and all procedures including in basic research and education and training;
	include a mechanism to ensure the 3Rs (replacement, reduction , refinement) are properly respected;
	make an ethical review part of every authorisation process for animal use;
	ensure transparency and public access to information about experimentation by more stringent reporting processes regarding the types of animals used, how they are used and their numbers;
	oblige Members States to licence and authorise establishments, experiments and personal;
	outline a strategy to end to the use of primates with immediate ban on wild-caught primates and great apes;
	integrate the standards for housing as agreed by Member States in the Council of Europe.

Last updated: December 11, 2009

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

European Union

Directive 86/609

Revision of Directive 86/609

Commission statistical reports (Jan. 05)

Housing and care guidelines (Jun. 07)

Eurogroup Documents

Briefing (Oct 2009)