Luxembourg, 07/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - Advocate General Leendert Geelhoed has proposed to the Court of Justice that it condemn France that did not transpose in time - before 24 November 1989 - the 1986 directive on the protection of animals used for experimental purposes. The new French legislation of September 2001 which is meant to transpose the directive correctly came too late to be taken into account in this case, which only concerns the situation that existed in February 1998 (date of the Commission's reasoned opinion to France), he explained.
The Commission, which lodged this case against France, accuses it of not having banned experiments that us animals belonging to "endangered species", under the terms intended by the European regulation. No provision in French law provides for a "specific and unquestionable ban on the use of protected species for experimental purposes", says the Advocate General, thereby agreeing with the Commission, for which the system the French set up was a purely administrative practice that the authorities may alter at will. In addition, France did not deny that it had not introduced rules submitting experiments that could cause intense pain to animals to compulsory controls.