WRITTEN QUESTION E-1825/02 by Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Biomedical primate research.
Date: 2002-06-27
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Netherlands, amendment of a law, animal experimentation, animal welfare, competence of the Member States, medical research, monkey, protection of animals, research body

C 301 E/236

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

5.12.2002

The Commission in the first instance will contact the US authorities to seek a solution to this issue. It is,
therefore, not appropriate to envisage retaliatory action at this stage of proceedings.

The Commission is in regular contact with the European providers of security services, and will continue
consult both on the issue of discrimination on the access to the US security market once this market is
again being opened to private operators, and on the efforts to have the liability cap for security operators
re-instated.

(2002/C 301 E/250)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1825/02

by Ian Hudghton (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(27 June 2002)

Subject: Biomedical primate research

The Commission has stated that the use of non-human primates in research is a ‘sensitive matter’ and is
aware of the high level of public concern about the use of these animals in laboratory research,
in
particular at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, Netherlands.

The Dutch Government Minister for Education, Culture and Science has admitted that ‘there is no longer
any reason to perform experiments on chimpanzees in the Netherlands’ and that they are ‘putting an end
to those experiments’.

In light of the above, and in view of the Commission’s current review of Directive 86/609/EEC (1)
concerning the use of non-human primates in research, does the Commission agree that the BPRC’s
decision to infect six chimpanzees at the Rijswijk Centre with the Hepatitis C virus later this year should be
halted until its review of the Directive has been concluded?

(1) OJ L 358, 18.12.1986, p. 1.

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(25 July 2002)

Council Directive 86/609/EEC of 24 November 1986 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 states in Article 6 that: ‘Each Member State shall designate the authority or
authorities responsible for verifying that the provisions of the Directive are properly carried out’. Article 12
states that ‘Where it is planned to subject an animal to an experiment in which it will, or may, experience
severe pain which is likely to be prolonged, that experiment must be specifically declared and justified to,
or specifically authorised by, the authority’.

Thus the decision whether to authorise the experiment on non-human primates at the Rijswijk Centre with
the Hepatitis C virus is the responsibility of the competent authorities in the Netherlands.

As far as the Commission has been informed, the decision whether or not to continue the research
activities at the BPRC on the development of an Hepatitis C vaccine which will involve the infection of six
chimpanzees is still under discussion by the authorities in the Netherlands.