Thursday, 08 April 2010 10:34

Legislation to regulate the use of animals for scientific experiments has gone a step further following the agreement reached between representatives of Parliament and the Council on the final details of the bill pending. The key point is to improve animal welfare without jeopardizing the fight against disease.

If approved by Parliament and the Council, the new legislation could reduce the number of animal tests and to establish, as a rule, an assessment before the experiment was carried out in the field of animal welfare. It gives Member States a degree of flexibility, since they can choose not to apply this rule in the case of certain types of experiments not involving apes.



Among other things, the bill addresses the issue of introduction of alternative methods that produce less pain or distress, better regulation of the use of primates, the classification of the severity of the tests and inspections to be carried out to ensure compliance.

The agreement reached Wednesday by Parliament and Council delegations is the result of a long process to reduce animal testing in the EU. In December 2009, delegations had reached agreement on major political issues, but had to stop the process changes due to the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. Wednesday's meeting confirmed the political agreement reached last year and led to an agreement on the entire text of the draft ley.El agreement still must be approved by the EP political groups. For this reason, it will now be formally submitted to the Committee on Agriculture and later full Parliament for a final vote. Both Parliament and the Council must approve the text of the bill. The vote in the Committee on Agriculture, which has not yet been formally scheduled, could take place on 3 or 4 May.