Brussels, 09/12/2009 (Agence Europe) - At a trialogue meeting on Monday 7 December, the three EU institutions made progress towards agreement on the draft directive to increase protection for animals used for scientific purposes. The compromise text manages to find a balance between the need for research, in particular in relation to human health, and raising standards in the way animals, especially primates, are used in scientific experiments. European agriculture ministers are expected to be able to reach political agreement on a common position acceptable to the European Parliament when they meet in Brussels on Monday 14 December.
According to a diplomat, a few issues remain to be resolved, for example, the possible uses of primates, where the primates used come from (are they specially bred?) and inspections by member states. The European Parliament wants to see closer monitoring of establishments which breed, supply or use monkeys. The different views on this matter in Council reflect the research capacities of the member states. France, the United Kingdom and Germany have the greatest research capacities, and so highlight the importance of being able to continue certain experiments to assist research into a number of human diseases.
The European Parliament does not question the need to retain these research capacities, but wants an improvement in animal welfare. There is no extreme viewpoint in the EP on this matter, with much of the reason for this being down to rapporteur Elisabeth Jeggle (EPP, Germany).
The new legislation, if approved, will “reduce the number of animal tests and introduce a compulsory assessment for each experiment to safeguard animal welfare,” the EP says in a press release. “In the final trialogue meeting yesterday, we succeeded in finding a balanced compromise that strengthens animal welfare while allowing vitally important research, including basic research, to continue in Europe and not in countries where animal welfare standards are much lower,” Jeggle said. The text negotiated still has to be approved by the political groups in the EP. It does not cover all the draft legislation, so further negotiations will have to take place before a complete agreement is formally submitted, first to the EP agriculture committee and then to the full Parliament for a final vote. Outstanding issues, the EP says, include comitology arrangements, which changed with the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty in December.
Around 12 million animals are used for scientific research each year in the EU. This number could be reduced after approval of the proposed legislation which states that animals can be used for experiments only if this is necessary for scientific purposes. All member states would have to ensure that whenever an alternative, scientifically valid, method, in which animals are not used, is available it has to be used instead.
In addition, EP and Council representatives agreed that approval should be granted only to tests that use killing methods which cause the least pain or distress, while still providing scientifically satisfactory results.
The proposed ban on using great apes such as chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans for scientific testing was broadly endorsed by both Council and EP during the negotiations. The Commission also proposed measures to restrict the use of other primates, such as ouistitis and macaques, but this could hamper European scientific research on neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's. MEPs successfully pushed for the use of such primates to be allowed if there is scientific evidence that the goal of the test cannot be achieved without using these species.
The Classification of the severity of tests. The Council and EP agreed to clarify the text of the legislation, giving definitions for four categories of pain inflicted during a test (“non-recovery”, “mild”, “moderate” or “severe”). To avoid repeated suffering, the Commission wants to allow the same animals to be re-used only if the test entails pain classed as “up to mild”. MEPs feared that applying criteria that are too strict would result in even more animals being used for tests, which would defeat the object of the exercise. They, therefore, asked for animals to be re-usable if the test entails “moderate” pain, after consulting a vet.
Inspections. The agreement reached will require national governments to ensure inspections, some unannounced, are performed on at least 33% of laboratories using animals. (L.C./transl.rt)