Yesterday, MEPs held a hearing to debate on animal testing. The Stop Vivisection citizens’ initiative aims to repeal the European directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and ask the European Commission to present a new proposal that does away with animal experimentation.
What is the Stop Vivisection citizens’ initiative? Their aim is “to repeal the European directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and ask the European Commission to present a new proposal that does away with animal experimentation.”
The initiative has collected over 1.1 million signatures to date, asking people to support a change in the way biomedical and toxicological research is being conducted.
Yesterday’s hearing in the Parliament was organised by the agriculture committee, in association with the environment, industry and petition committees.
Speakers include initiative organisers Gianni Tamino and Claude Reiss, as well as Dr Jean Greek of Americans for Medical Advancement (AFMA), Emily McIvor of Humane Society International and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.
To quote the European Parliament website: “The citizens’ initiative allows citizens to call on Commission to propose new legislation in areas that fall within its competence by collecting one million signatures from at least a quarter of the EU member states. The organisers of successful initiatives will participate in a hearing at the European Parliament.”
The Commission will have three months to examine the initiative and decide how to act on it.
For more information on the initiative to stop animal testing, you can visit the Stop Vivisection website here: www.stopvivisection.eu
The European Parliament press release is here: http://bit.ly/1ARrB6G
You can watch a video of the committee meeting by following the link: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20150511-1500-COMMITTEE-AGRI-ENVI-ITRE-PETI
Barry Creed 
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