L'UE veut diminuer le nombre d'animaux utilisés pour les recherches

European Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik welcomed the revised legislation on animal experimentation.

"It has been a long negotiation process, which has shown how sensitive and important the issues at stake are. However, everyone agreed that it was vital to improve the situation for animals which are still needed to be used in scientific research and safety testing, whilst maintaining a high standard of research and improving the focus on finding alternative methods to animal testing. Today these objectives have been achieved. The European Union will soon be able to say it has the highest standards of experimental animal welfare in the world," he said.

While most MEPs backed the agreement, the Greens were critical of the revised version of the law and voted against the compromise.

Welsh MEP and vice-president of the Greens/EFA group Jill Evans said the revised rules will bring some improvements but weaken the law in other areas.

"Crucially, the new laws will fail to ensure that alternatives to animal testing are used whenever possible. This will mean animals will suffer needlessly in scientific tests even though alternatives exist. Worryingly, the new laws would also prevent member states from adopting more ambitious rules on animal testing at national level. The Greens/EFA group wanted to ensure national governments maintained this right. We also seriously regret that stricter rules on the use of non-human primates were not adopted."

The European People's Party (EPP) – the largest group in the European Parliament – described the deal as a "breakthrough".

"The new rules are a breakthrough for the protection of animals while striking a sensible balance to keep medical research in Europe, preventing research projects being moved to non-EU countries with lower standards for animal rights", the European Parliament's rapporteur," German EPP MEP Elisabeth Jeggle said.

UK Conservative MEP Richard Ashworth (European Conservatives & Reformists) welcomed the new rules, which he said would "reinforce and strengthen" animal welfare legislation while at the same time encouraging the phasing out of animal testing as new technologies come on stream.

"The EU has come forward with a common sense compromise. A blanket ban on animal testing that was put forward by some is simply not realistic at the moment. We have instead come forward with a balanced package that increases the protection of animals in labs whilst ensuring that testing can still continue under tighter regulation. This further safeguards animal welfare until new developing technologies can replace animal testing altogether. Above all, our compromise protects human health and allows vital, and in some cases, life-saving, research to continue," he said.

UK Socialist MEP David Martin said the new directive is a huge disappointment. "What we must move towards is clear restrictions on the use of non-human primates, a ban on the use of wild-caught animals, an unequivocal obligation to use non-animal alternative methods when scientifically available, and a ban on experiments which involve severe and prolonged suffering - today's ruling fell woefully below this," he said.

Michelle Thew, chief executive of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE) said the adoption of the new directive is a "missed opportunity" to introduce measures that would have given greater protection to animals.

He said some restrictions on non-human primates and reusing individual animals were dropped, adding that this will lead to continued suffering. It said the compromise does include some improvements but called for compulsory funding for developing non-animal alternative research methods.

EFPIA, the research-based pharmaceutical group, said the review to the 25-year-old directive must be implemented. The industry said animal testing will remain a "small but indispensable part of biomedical research" which is vital in developing fundamental biological knowledge and in delivering modern vaccines, treatments and new cures for patients.

EFPIA Director-General Brian Ager said: "The Council and European Parliament have aimed to strike a balance between improving welfare and maintaining Europe's medical research. The agreement should bring direct and tangible animal welfare benefits and allow essential medical research to continue in Europe to deliver the new and innovative treatments that society wishes to see. It is clearly better for Europe that such advances are made here in Europe, where animal welfare is a key consideration in the research framework."   However, he said the industry is disappointed that certain provisions "run the risk of creating legal uncertainty without bringing any welfare benefits," adding that EFPIA hopes member states will address these concerns when transposing the text into national legislation.

Sonja Van Tichelen, director of the Eurogroup for Animals, said yesterday's agreement would reduce animal suffering but added that their campaign will continue.

"This directive goes a long way to relieve the suffering of the approximately 12 million animals used in research in Europe every year but it is now down to member states to transpose this legislation to its fullest as soon as possible. This is not the end but the start of a process. EU member states will have to start work now to make this new law the driving force to reduce and where possible end animal testing. We hope that this decision will be the first step towards changing mindsets away from thinking that animals are always needed in testing," she said.