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12 MILLION REASONS

European Commission's proposals to revise Directive 86/609/EEC

The ECEAE has launched a scathing attack on MEPs following their decision in Strasbourg on the revision of the animal experiments directive on 5th May. The Parliament has significantly weakened the already inadequate proposals of the European Commission (EC) to revise the 23 year old law, when adopting its Position during the First Reading (the First Reading is part of the co-decision procedure for bringing in new European laws).

The position of the Parliament has now been forwarded to the Council of Ministers for discussion and will return to the Parliament for Second Reading (unless the Council simply agree with the First Reading decision, which is unlikely). There is still a long way to go and everything to fight for.

If the Parliament gets its way, researchers would, for example, be allowed to cause animals suffering which is both severe and prolonged, and they would be allowed to repeatedly use the same animal in painful experiments. Researchers would in effect be allowed to determine for which experiments they need governmental permission, by deciding how to categorise the likely suffering; and they would not have to carry out retrospective assessments of experiments – whether from the animal welfare or scientific point of view – in the vast majority of cases.

Crucially, there would be no strategy to bring forward the day when animal experiments no longer take place, as everyone claims they want.

The Parliament did vote in favour of provisions (some of which were proposed by the ECEAE) that would impact positively on animals: a requirement for someone to look after lab animals at all times; the extension of the remit of ECVAM (European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods) to include the co-ordination and promotion of the development and use of alternatives, a classification of the severity of procedures, including an upper limit of suffering (as yet unspecified) , stricter provisions on data-sharing, more funding for training and, research into non-animal methods. Nevertheless, overall most European citizens will now feel very let down by their representatives as the majority of the amendments to the Commission's proposals are clearly contrary to public opinion, and have undermined proposals originally put forward by the Commission to make major long over-due improvements to animal welfare.

Non-human primates
Amendments voted in by MEPs fail to offer any meaningful protection for monkeys. Researchers would be able to use non-human primates for just about any purpose, not simply life-threatening or debilitating diseases as the Commission proposed, and there will be no incentive to stop the capture of primates in the wild, which causes them immense distress, for breeding for research. The ECEAE is strongly opposed to the use of any primates in experiments, as are the European public (see below).

European Commission
Commissioner Dimas, who is responsible for the directive at the EC, stressed in May 2009 that industry scaremongering that research may leave Europe if there were stricter animal protection measures was not justified. He stated that some of the EC's proposals are already applied in various Member States, and that there is no contradiction between applying stricter standards for research and research remaining in the EU.

Further information

How can I help?

The position of the Parliament has now been forwarded to the Council of Ministers for discussion ahead of the European Elections in June.

If you are an MEP or EU official
Contact Samira Gazzane to arrange a briefing meeting. Email:

If you are an EU citizen:
Watch this space! We'll regularly update the website and you can also sign up to our newsletter so that we can keep you posted on any developments with the animal experiments directive.

©2009 European Coalition to End Animal Experiments - All rights reserved.

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