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European Commission pushes ahead with revision of Directive
The Environment Directorate is pushing ahead with the first phase of the revision of Directive 86/609 which regulates animal research across Europe. A Technical Expert Working Group (TEWG) was set up by the Commission to carry out this first phase. Their task was to provide scientific and technical advice to "elaborate potential solutions as the basis for the revision".
To facilitate the work of the Group, it was split into four subgroups to address issues connected with:
- the scope of the new Directive, definitions, the three R's and suggestion of a central database
- authorisation procedures
- ethical review process
- severity classification and cost-benefit analysis
The Commission originally set a tight timescale for the work of the Group, which was only to meet twice - in July and November, with all the intervening work conducted over the Internet. Despite some doubts about how realistic this timetable would be, given that it spanned the summer when many of the participants would be on vacation or at conferences, most for the subgroups were able to produce draft reports in time for the final meeting and all submitted their final reports by the original deadline of the end of November.
"We are extremely grateful for all the hard work carried out by the members of the Technical Expert Working Group," said Susanna Louhimies of DG Environment, "It provides the Commission with a solid basis upon which to produce the first draft of a new Directive."
The Commission will start analysing the reports before the end of the year, and consult other Commission Directorates wherever there is potential overlap with other pieces of Community legislation.
The Commission has indicated that will be looking at the possibility of a stakeholder consultation on the first draft of the new directive. This could take the form of an Internet consultation. The Commission will want to consider comments from stakeholders and, where they consider it appropriate, revise the draft directive before formally adopting it. When the Commission put the REACH proposal on a new system of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals out to a stakeholder consultation, they generated over 6,000 comments, which took several months to analyse. The expected level of stakeholder response on the animal experimentation directive may also be quite significant and require a considerable time for analysis.
Once the Commission has adopted the revised draft directive, it will be sent to the European Parliament for a first reading. This cannot happen before June 2004, when the new enlarged European Parliament is elected. However, since a new set of Commissioners will be appointed in November 2004, the draft directive may not be adopted until 2005. (See calendar below). A swift passage through the Parliament would take at least three months. However, it is expected that animal rights groups will lobby the parliament to introduce amendments to make the directive more restrictive. Depending on how long it takes for these to be resolved between the Parliament and the Commission, the new Directive may not be approved until 2006 or even later.
European Parliament 2004
April 2004 - Last legislative Plenary session of current Parliament
26-29 April 2004 - Hearing of candidate Commissioners from new Member States (10)
1 May 2004 - Official date of Enlargement
3-6 May 2004 - Last session of current Parliament: Ceremonial session with acknowledgment of the 10 Commissioners from new Member States Election of EU Parliament members (2004-2009)
7-10 June 2004 - First Plenary session of the new European Parliament (internal constitutional decisions and hearing of the candidate for Presidency of the new Commission)
20-23 July 2004 - First effective Plenary session of the new EU Parliament
13-16 September 2004 - Common positions of the Council will start being transmitted again
4-14 October 2004 - Hearings of the new Commissioners (EU 25)
1 November 2004 - Entry into function of the new Commission
25-25 October or 15-18 November 2004 - First normal Plenary session of the new Parliament (with confirmation of first readings based on a list from the Commission)