LERU applauds the EC’s response to the ECI “Stop Vivisection” #vivisection #leru #eu
LERU, the League of European Research Universities, very much welcomes today’s response by the European Commission to the European Citizens´ Initiative (ECI) “Stop Vivisection”. The EC has clearly stated that “Directive 2010/63/EU is an indispensable tool at the EU level to protect animals” and that it will not be abolished. Also no new legislation will be proposed by the EC.
“The complete replacement of animal studies is currently not possible”, the EC goes on, although it agrees on the ultimate objective of phasing out animal testing, as is actually stipulated in the EU Directive. As LERU has repeatedly argued, that moment has not yet come and research using animals is still needed. Therefore the highest standards of animal welfare must be adopted while human and animal health are protected. The Directive has been an essential step forward in modernising and harmonising animal welfare standards within the EU. It firmly anchors the so-called 3R principles (reduce, refine, replace) and makes the use of alternative methods mandatory if available.
However, there is no room for complacency. The EC acknowledges that further R&D efforts to research, validate and implement alternatives need to be undertaken. Having at its very core the advancement of knowledge and the promotion of research, LERU strongly endorses this call for furthering research on alternative methods. Therefore, LERU welcomes the actions announced by the EC: accelerating progress in the 3Rs through knowledge sharing; validating and implementing new alternative approaches; enforcing compliance with the 3R principles and aligning relevant sector legislation; and engaging in a dialogue with the scientific community.
LERU also reiterates that the Member States share the responsibility of fully and correctly implementing the Directive. As indicated in its response to the ECI, the full implementation of the Directive is “paramount to increasing the welfare of animals still used today”. Whether the EU makes good use of the high level standards put forward by this Directive will depend on the willingness of the Member States to abide by them. As such, LERU stresses the importance of the EC´s follow-up through the infringement procedures.
Although LERU very much regrets the fact that the debate on such an important issue as animal research has been propelled by the flawed arguments put forward by Stop Vivisection, the ECI has evidenced an issue of great salience: the current misconceptions that surround animal research. European citizens deserve sound arguments in order to adopt an informed opinion about animal research. Research using animals should be better explained to citizens. That is why LERU has already expressed its support to the UK Concordat on Openness and will be actively involved in furthering the debate on animal research in the future.
This ECI has also revealed some of the serious pitfalls that the ECI Regulation currently presents. The democratic deficit that is so often attributed to the EU will not be solved by abusing the instruments of participatory democracy within the EU to the point of harming its core values. During the upcoming review of the ECI Regulation, LERU will do its utmost to make sure that this instrument remains within the limits of key EU values, such as the importance of research for human and animal health, and the principles that guide its functioning, such as the principle of legal certainty or attributed competences.
As stated by LERU Secretary-General, Prof Kurt Deketelaere: “Today is an important day for the EU. With its response to the ECI, the EC has reaffirmed its commitment to raising animal welfare standards within the EU and to lead by example on the international stage. This forward-looking Directive represents a major step by the EU to advance excellent science and high-quality research.”
source : LERU
Brussels Diplomatic 
First of all it´s very sad that brusselsdiplomatic.com only bring information and opinions from people who always have wanted to stop the European Citizens’ Initiative on Vivisection and a democratic proces. A league of velvet interests and some of their members that even don´t want or show up to a scientific paneldiscussion when they are invited. But maybe this “Daily newspaper for EU-affairs” is a “One-Way” Diplomacy.
To readers of this page and those who have not followed the ECI, I certainly hope that you will read the background story behind stopvivisection.eu.
My commments on the Commission Decision on the ECI Stopvivisection.eu 1) :
I want to express that it is a scandal, that prominent international scholars and serious NGOs are not taken seriously when it comes to playing roulette with people’s health and allows that millions of animals die in laboratories – just to obtain results that are not worth more than a random coin toss.
However, we have managed to bring animal issues to light so that all European citizens should not be in any doubt, that this is a battle that is not yet completed.
Stop Vivisection has achieved that over one million EU citizens have signed the citizens’ initiative and through this also made aware that this is a matter of scientific dimension that has not yet seen before and which goes far beyond the debate on animal welfare.
It has also managed to make MEPs aware of the consequences to our health and to inform the public that what provivisectionists calls “limited relevance in animal studies” and “the poor understanding in large parts of the society on why animal studies are currently taking place” is purely an expression of lack of reasons in maintaining tests on animals and that they prefer keeping the public in the dark – and not least to keep the public ignorant of capital interest groups who have little interest in facts that may threaten the status quo.
Retention of test results from animal testing and the scientific facts have long been able to be discussed between researchers and doctors who prefer animal testing and those who will abolish animal testing. Through invitations to different panel discussions organized by European citizens between the pros and cons researchers, the animal researchers, however, “shone” in the failure to attend in such discussions. Instead many people denigrate researchers that daily use animal-free methods, and in public and social media there has been a large group of people who have shown their own lack of scientific evidence by writing grumbles over anti-vivisectionists and their openness about the side effects, that people are exposed to, when products have been tested on animals, and which provides consequences for thousands of people that annually are hospitalised because of bad science.
However, we will not be neutral observers until 2017, when a public review of the Directive 2010/63 are scheduled to take place. In the coming months and years we encourage all EU-citizens and NGOs to continue to support Stop Vivisection and with the support we already have from the independent research community and NGOs, we will certainly not be neutral observers. The use of animal testing is only done legally through an EU Directive. A directive that each nation can hide behind – that’s why we on European and national level constantly continue to present facts and put it on the table and will not accept a dogma, where policy does not allow to be challenged with scientific evidence.
1) http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/pdf/vivisection/en.pdf
I also totally agree with the commitee of the ECI stopvivisection.eu that this is a huge lack of democracy for ECI´s and the initiative stopvivisection.eu –
ref. pressrelease 05/06-2015 http://stopvivisection.eu/en/content/press-releases
Silvana Pellegrini Adam
Coordinator of the ECI Stop Vivisection in Denmark