Report on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes

Further information:

The Directive took effect on 1 January 2013, however, the last national legislation was adopted only in 2015. Also, the common standards for animal accommodation and care only entered into force in January 2017. At the time of this review, European Commission conformity checks were still ongoing, including a number of enquiries and infringement cases in progress, possibly leading to changes to some national legislation.

Factual information on practical implementation of the Directive by Member States is not due until 2018. National statistical data were published for the first time in 2015, but trends of animal use at EU level will not be known before 2019. Information on retrospective assessments of projects will become available from 2019. Therefore, a full REFIT evaluation of the Directive will be undertaken after 2019 when better information is available and sufficient time has lapsed for the Directive's implementation to enable an assessment of any changes in welfare and use practices.

For all these reasons, the legally required completion date of this review comes quite early. Therefore the report can only give preliminary indications of progress, problem areas and good practice.

In 2010, the EU adopted Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, updating and replacing the 1986 legislation. All uses of live animals for research or education, and testing, must be carried out in compliance with this Directive.

This review aims to assess how well the Directive's objectives are achieved and whether it is fit for purpose or needs updating given the latest scientific and ethical developments. The review takes into account advances in the development of non-animal alternatives - in particular those replacing non-human primates. It incorporates conclusions from a feasibility study on the progress towards using second and/or higher generation non-human primates.

The consultation methodology, analysed results and recommendations on improving the implementation and application of the Directive are found in the accompanying staff working document.

EUR-Lex: SWD(2017)353: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the report http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2017:353:FIN

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