Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

[**Avis juridique important**](../../../editorial/legal_notice.htm)

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# 91996E1307

**WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1307/96 by Undine-Uta BLOCH von BLOTTNITZ to the Commission. EU funding for experiments involving animals** 
  
*Official Journal C 356 , 25/11/1996 P. 0025*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1307/96 by Undine-Uta Bloch von Blottnitz (V) to the Commission (31 May 1996)

Subject: EU funding for experiments involving animals

At Berlin Free University research is conducted into and using animals. In the field of basic research, for example, experiments are conducted using ticks on domestic rabbits. The rabbits are killed at the end of the series of experiments. It is said that European funding is available for these and similar experiments.

1. Have other German research establishments applied for funding from the Commission for such or similar series of experiments?

2. If so when, which establishments were involved and what was the level of funding?

3. Has the Commission given financial support to such or similar experiments and will it continue to do so?

4. If so, when, to whom and what will the level of funding be?

5. Does the Commission consider such experiments useful and necessary?

Answer given by Mrs Cresson on behalf of the Commission (10 July 1996)

There is no research project involving tests with ticks on domestic rabbits which is currently funded by the Community.

Moreover, the Community research programme on biomedicine and health lays down that animals should be used for experiments only in the absence of alternative methods.

As regards the measures taken by the Commission to limit the number of animals used in experiments, reference should be made to 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. ((OJ L 358, 18.12.1986. )) Under this Directive, the Commission set up, in 1993, the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). This Centre, which forms part of the Joint Research Centre of the Commission, is primarily concerned with coordinating the validation of alternative methods to in vivo tests at Community level.

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