European Commission published response to ‘Stop Vivisection’

On 3 June the European Commission issued its formal reply to the ECI ‘Stop Vivisection’, whose aim is to repeal European Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and ban animal research in the EU. The Commission does not intend to submit a proposal to repeal the Directive and rejects the European Citizen Initiative.

In the report, the European Commission states: […] “Today, there are effective treatments for many infectious diseases, some forms of cancer, and several chronic diseases such as diabetes. These advancements would have been impossible without the insights gained in animal studies.” 

FENS is fully committed to the responsible use of animals in research. Neuroscience in fact, still relies on animal models to understand complex brain processes that are otherwise impossible to decode and represent the basis of brain diseases affecting 127 million European citizens.

FENS recognizes the European Citizens Initiative as an important participatory tool allowing European citizens to start a constructive dialogue and tackle important issues. Furthermore, FENS agrees with its general goal of reducing the number of animals used in research, including substitutive methods, which are clearly complementary. Anyway, animal models have been demonstrated to be key scientific drivers to preserve animal and human welfare.

FENS expects that the evaluation of the Directive 2010/63/EU in 2017 will focus on the complete implementation within the Member States, since the current legislative framework is essential to achieve high standard in animal research and the further development of alternative methods. FENS reaffirms its support to the Directive and is fully committed to any possible involvement in the evaluation process.