WRITTEN QUESTION E-0039/01

by Jeffrey Titford (EDD) to the Commission

(18 January 2001)

Subject: European Union target reduction in live animal experiments

The Chief Executive of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, Michelle Thew, recently stated: The United Kingdom Government should be ashamed of its track record so far on animal experiments. The Government has so far betrayed its pre-election pledge to significantly reduce the number of United Kingdom animal experiments; it has failed to implement any strategy whatsoever to achieve the target of a 50 % reduction in animal experiments adopted by the European Community, and it has failed the British public who are increasingly frustrated with the Government's lack of action.

1. When was this 50 % target reduction announced?

2. By what committee of the European Commission was it announced?

3. Within what timescale is the 50 % reduction in live animal experiments to be achieved?

4. What monitoring arrangements have been put in place in the fifteen Member States of the European Union?

5. What is the current progress in meeting the 50 % target reduction in each of the Members States of the European Union, including the United Kingdom?

6. What action does the European Union propose to take in cases where insufficient progress is being made towards the target reduction?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(26 March 2001)

A 50 % reduction in animals used for experimental purposes by the year 2000 was set as a target in Fifth Environmental Action Programme as presented by the Commission in 1992. It was never stated against which base the 50 % reduction should be measured. Furthermore, this particular target was never adopted by the Council. The Commission considers, however, this indicative target as a tool to encourage the stakeholders to actively reduce the numbers of animals used in experiments in the Community, also beyond the year 2000.

With regard to monitoring and progress, Article 13, Paragraph 1 of Council Directive 86/609/EEC of 24 November 1986 on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes(1) states that On the basis of requests for authorization and notifications received, and on the basis of the reports made, the authority in each Member State shall collect, and as far as possible periodically make publicly available, the statistical information on the use of animals in experiments .

In addition, Article 23 states that At regular intervals not exceeding three years, and for the first time five years following notification of this Directive, Member States shall inform the Commission of the measures taken in this area and provide a suitable summary of the information collected under the provisions of Article 13. The Commission shall prepare a report for the Council and the European Parliament.

According to the Second Commission Report on the statistics on the number of animals used for experiments in the Community(2), the total number of animals used for experiments in the Community in 1996 was 11,6 millions. By comparison, the First Report(3) for 1991/1992 showed a total of 11,8 million animals used but these figures covered only 10 Member States instead of 15 today. This demonstrates that Member States are making substantial efforts to reduce the number of animals used for experimental purposes.

Since neither the 50 % target was ever adopted nor the base line agreed, the Commission is not in a position to take formal action against Member States. Instead, together with Member States, the Commission promotes the development and the validation of alternative methods as a means to reducing the number of animals used in experiments.

The Fifth framwork programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (RTD) Activities 1998-2002(4) makes provisions for such research. In particular, within the three key actions of the specific programme on quality of life and management of living resources, namely food, nutrition and health, cell factory and environment and health, the Commission supports the development of alternatives to animal experiments.

In 1991, the Commission established a European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), which is a unit of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection of the Commission's Joint Research Centre, located at Ispra, Italy. ECVAM's principal duty is to co-ordinate the validation of advanced, non-animal test methods at the Community level, that is, to establish their relevance and reliability for their stated purposes.

Recently, three in vitro methods, validated by ECVAM, were placed in Annex V of Council Directive 67/548/EEC of 27 June 1967 on the classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances(5) and are now available for regulatory purposes. The Commission attaches great importance to this work and is actively seeking to get these methods incorporated in the Organisation for economic cooperation and development (OECD) Test Guidelines Programme, in order to secure their world-wide application.

(1) OJ L 358, 18.12.1986.

(2) COM(1999) 191 final.

(3) COM(94) 195 final.

(4) OJ L 26, 1.2.1999.

(5) OJ B 196, 16.8.1967.