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News
European Parliamentary Labour Party brands new animal testing rules ‘a missed opportunity’
A European agreement to strengthen rules on animal
testing, which have been unchanged since 1986, has been labelled as a missed
opportunity by Labour’s Euro-MPs.
In a vote earlier today a package of measures were approved to minimise the
exposure of animals to unnecessary suffering while giving scientists the
freedom to carry out vital experiments.
However, Labour’s spokesperson in the European Parliament on animal rights,
Brian Simpson MEP, believes the agreement could have gone further without
jeopardising life-saving research. He said: “We have waited almost a
quarter of a century for new rules on animal experiments, so it is
disappointing that the agreement is not more ambitious.“
Although the revised directive will bring other EU countries in line with the
higher standards used in the UK, key provisions that would have firmly
committed Europe to the reduction and replacement of the use of animals in
experiments are missing from the revised legislation.
Mr Simpson added: “We had hoped for clear mechanisms to ensure that
replacements for animal experiments were rapidly introduced but the directive
has failed to deliver.“
Labour MEPs had hoped that the agreement would include a procedure to regularly
review the use of animals in procedures, so that rules would keep step with
developments in technological and scientific knowledge. They are also concerned
that the directive may make it harder for countries to adopt stronger rules to
avoid the unnecessary suffering of animals.
Mr Simpson said: “I regret that the revised directive does not send out
a clearer and stronger signal to EU governments encouraging them to adopt
higher animal welfare standards than those laid out under the rules adopted
today.
“I am concerned that restrictions on member states adopting higher
welfare standards imply a race to the bottom rather than a push to the top when
it comes to animal welfare protection.
“The UK has always prided itself on striving for higher animal welfare
standards and my concern is that the new text may severely limit the UK’s
ability to push for higher standards in the future.
“This is not a question of whether we put animal rights ahead of
medical research. I am disappointed that Conservative and Lib Dem MEPs
supported this race to the bottom when we could have done more to minimise the
suffering to which animals are exposed while allowing researchers to do their
vital work.“
He concluded: “There are positive steps in this new package. It will
enable the continuation of vital research into new medicines and diseases while
improving the quality of life for thousands of animals across the EU. It is
probably the best deal that could be struck. But it could have and should have
gone further.
“An opportunity for higher animal welfare standards has been lost.“
