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Parliament approves Evans' report
The European Parliament Environment Committee's 'own initiative' report on the protection of animals used for experiments was adopted by the full Parliament at its plenary session on 4 December. The report begins by stating that there is an urgent need to revise the existing Directive on the subject and claims that it has not been satisfactorily implemented in all Member States.
Rapporteur Jill Evans (UK, Green) said that animal welfare was a subject of extensive public debate and interest, and concern about the use of animals had escalated. Enormous prog-ress had also been made in scientific knowledge and practice, "For these reasons, as well as deficiencies in the actual operation of the Directive 86/609, with many cases of infringement action taken by the Commission over the years, it is clear that this Directive is in urgent need of revision", she said.
Evans said that she hoped that the points on which her report had focused would guide the Commission in its review of the existing Directive.
The first was a need for a central European inspectorate to co-ordinate the work of inspectors in Member States, and with the power to visit facilities and revoke licences if necessary. The second was the need for data to be collected in a standardised form and published annually.
Thirdly, the development of alternatives should be given priority across all Member States in order that animal experiments could be seen as 'exceptions to the rule rather than normal scientific procedures'. A central European database should be set up including information on all animal experiments approved, currently performed, and finalised.
Finally, said Evans, the many complaints from NGOs and other bodies and organisations relating to breaches of the existing Article 5 on the care and accommodation of animals could be overcome by an EU-wide standard training course, which would include animal welfare and the ethics of experiments.
In reply, Commissioner Margot Wallström welcomed the own-initiative report and felt that it had come at the right time to maintain the momentum for the in-depth revision of the Directive that had been promised.
A technical expert working group would be convened with representatives from all stakeholders to elaborate on specific issues including those raised in the report. The report contained the key elements for revision of the Directive, she said "and I hope I can count on Parliament's continued support in our efforts to further improve the welfare of animals used in experiments in the European Union."
There is particular discussion of transgenic animals in the report, which comments that the current range of genetic techniques were not known when the Directive was agreed in 1986, and that there has been a considerable increase in the genetic manipulation of laboratory animals since then. It calls for better recording of the number of transgenic animals used in the EU, that they should all be recorded and traced throughout their lives, and that any transgenic animals with 'debilitating deformities' which cause any distress should be immediately and humanely killed.
There is also criticism of the use of primates in research, which the report considers a cause for "great concern". It says that the use of wild-caught primates is ethically unacceptable and should not be considered, and calls for a complete review of other primate use.
In the plenary debate, Dr Giuseppe Nisticò, an Italian conservative, said that he hoped that the boundaries and standards laid down in the existing Directive were applied throughout the European Union. "But we need to acknowledge that, for certain specific purposes, it is still necessary to use non-human primates today. It is necessary for the purposes of assessing the effectiveness and safety of AIDS vaccines - every year, another two million people die - for the production of monoclonal antibody vaccines to right diseases such as cancer, polio, tuberculosis or malaria, and where there are no other alternative methods in existence. To prohibit these types of experiments on primates would be to jeopardise the lives of a great many children and adults, depriving them of drugs and vaccines which are essential for the preservation of their lives."
People who devoted their lives to scientific research were skilled professionals, said Nisticò, as were the Commission's scientific consultants. They were aware of their responsibilities to perform experiments with the aim of eliminating diseases that were still incurable and fatal.
Torben Lund, a member of the Socialist party and former Danish Health Minister, said that he would support including the use of animals for educational purposes, and taking a look at the conditions under which transgenic and genetically modified animals were used in experiments. "We must establish some clear ethical rules."
The report was adopted in a simple majority vote.
Setting up of expert working group delayed
The expert working group on the revision of Directive 86/609, which was due to meet in March, still had no date for a first meeting as the Bulletin went to press. This would appear to lessen the chances of the Commission having a final proposal to put before the Parliment by the end of 2003, as requested in the own initiative report.