COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 86/609/EEC on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes.

2001/0277 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 86/609/EEC on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes.

1. PROCEDURE The Proposal COM(2001)703 final [1] was transmitted to the European Parliament and the Council on 28 November 2001 in accordance with the co-decision procedure pursuant to Article 95 of the EC Treaty. The European Economic and Social Committee gave its opinion on 20 March 2002 [2]. The European Parliament gave its opinion and adopted the proposal without amendments at the first reading on 02.07.2002. The Council adopted its Common Position on 17 March 2003.

[1] OJ C 25 E, 29.01.2002, p. 536

[2] OJ C 94, 18.04.2002, p.5.

2. PURPOSE OF THE DIRECTIVE Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes is the implementing tool for Council of Europe Convention ETS 123 on the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes, of which the Community is a Party. The Council of Europe has opened for signature and ratification a "Protocol of Amendment" to the Convention. It provides for amending the Appendices of the Convention by a simplified procedure rather than by the usual procedure that involves ratification by all parties. This would allow the Convention to keep up-to-date with the latest scientific knowledge and research on the welfare of laboratory animals quicker than today. In order to amend Directive 86/609/EEC and bring it in line with the Protocol of Amendment, the Commission has proposed the present Directive. This amendment aims at providing for a regulatory committee procedure for a quicker introduction of changes to the Annexes of the Directive; without this amendment, the full co-decision procedure would be required.

3. COMMISSION COMMENTS

The Commission welcomes the amendment proposed by the Council to align the text of Article 1 with the standard wording for the reference to the comitology procedure. The Commission agrees with the time limit for compliance of Member States, which is one year following the publication of the Directive in the Official Journal of the European Union, as introduced in Article 2. Furthermore the Commission accepts the editorial changes in recitals 3 and 5 which improve the flow of the text.

The Commission considers that the Common Position adopted on 17 March 2003 does not alter the objectives of the Proposal and thus supports the Common Position as it stands.

4. CONCLUSION

The Commission therefore supports the Common Position adopted on the 17 March 2003.