Animal testing legislation

MEPs from the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament have criticised new EU laws on animal testing for not going far enough. The European Parliament today adopted a compromise proposal revising EU legislation on the use of animals in scientific testing and experiments. Greens/EFA MEPs voted against the compromise. After the vote, Welsh MEP and vice-president of the Greens/EFA group Jill Evans (Plaid Cymru) said:

"While the revised legislation will introduce some improvements to current EU rules on animal testing, it simply does not go far enough and, in some cases, weakens the current laws. Serious concerns highlighted throughout by the Greens/EFA group have been ignored and we regret that MEPs today failed to support our attempts to redress these concerns (1).

"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.

"Clearly, there are significant improvements in the compromise text, particularly on inspections, on the new authorisation process for experiments and a proper classification system which we welcome. However, we have been waiting several years for the update of this law and this review represents a missed opportunity for guaranteeing animal welfare. With some 12 million animals used each year in scientific experiments in the EU, we could and should have gone much further."

(1) An attempt to refer the proposal back to committee was rejected, as were three Greens/EFA amendments.

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