Brussels, 05/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - Criticised by the Greens/EFA and the European United Left in Parliament for his "lack of vision", Stavros Dimas, Commissioner-designate for the environment, made more than one person happy during his hearing at the European Parliament by declaring how concerned he was about the issue of animal welfare (see EUROPE of 30 September, p.7).
The NGO, Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, is delighted. Eurogroup Director Sonja van Tichelen said: "We are delighted that Commissioner-designate Dimas has pointed to animal testing under REACH as a crucial issue for him in his forthcoming mandate as environment commissioner and we look forward to the concretisation of this commitment when the new Commission takes office. It is absolutely crucial that REACH includes mandatory data-sharing, targeted information-gathering and a full commitment to the use and development of non-animal tests to avoid the suffering and death of millions of animals in chemical safety tests".