EU says ban on animal research "premature"

The European Union (EU) said on Wednesday it shared the conviction that animal testing should be phased out in Europe, but "a complete ban on animal research in the EU would be premature."

The European Commission said this in a press release in response to "Stop Vivisection", the European Citizens' Initiative signed by 1.17 million citizens that was submitted to the European Commission on March 3, 2015.

"Thanks to major technological advances, Europe is reducing the use of animal testing," said Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, adding that a complete ban on animal research in the EU "would risk chasing out biomedical research from Europe."

Referring to the "Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes" that the initiative seeks to repeal, the Commission said it was "the right legislation to achieve the underlying objectives of the Initiative, therefore no repeal of that legislation is proposed. The Directive is needed to ensure a high level of protection of the animals used in research."

EU Commissioner Karmenu Vella, responsible for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries also noted that the ultimate aim of EU legislation was to phase out all animal testing.

"The European Commission is taking a number of actions to enable faster progress in the uptake and use of alternatives approaches," said Vella.

Moreover, the commission also promised a number of further actions that it would take towards the goal of phasing out animal testing, including a conference engaging the scientific community and relevant stakeholders by 2016 and on that occasion a progress report on the actions taken. Endit