‘Stop Vivisection’ appeal rejected
4 Jun 2015 by Evoluted New Media
After the ‘Stop Vivisection’ public hearing at the European Parliament, the Commission – responsible for legislation – announced that a vivisection ban would not be applied.
In a formal reply on the 3rd June, the European Commission announced that it supports the animal testing phase out process and that it intends to take actions to meet the petition’s objectives. However the appeal for complete ban on animal testing would not be implemented.
The ‘Stop Vivisection’ petition – that attracted more than one million signatures from 26 EU countries – called for the replacement of animal testing with more accurate, reliable and human-relevant methods and for a complete ban on animal research.
European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, said: “The 'Stop Vivisection' Citizens' Initiative comes at a time of transition – thanks to major technological advances; Europe is reducing the use of animal testing. However, a complete ban on animal research in the EU would be premature and it would risk chasing out biomedical research from Europe.”
The EU Institution is convinced that the existing Directive 2010/63/EU – aiming to strengthen legislation on animal testing – is the right legislation to achieve the objectives of the petition. Therefore no repeal of that legislation was proposed.
Moreover, the European Commission announced that it will undertake further actions to phase out animal testing. The Commission members indicated that acceleration of replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals for scientific research through knowledge sharing is needed. Therefore the Commission will continue to support and encourage the development of alternative approaches.
“The ultimate aim of EU legislation is to phase out all animal testing. In response to the Citizens' Initiative, the European Commission is taking a number of actions to enable faster progress in the uptake and use of alternatives approaches,” said Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries.
A conference engaging the scientific community and relevant stakeholders will be organised by 2016 where a progress report on the actions taken will be presented.
