European Parliament hosted Public Hearing to discuss the Initiative ‘Stop Vivisection’
14 May 2015
Neuroscience News
14 May, 2015 in Neuroscience News
The Public Hearing, chaired by the AGRI Committee Chair Czelaw Siekierski, gave the opportunity to organisers, experts and MEPs to debate and express their different perspectives on the current legislative framework, the value of the animal model for predicting human responses and alternatives to animal testing.
After Mr. Falkenberg, from DG ENVI, introduced the current regulatory framework, different experts gave thier presentations and share their points of EU with the members of the European Parliaments. The experts included Mr. Ray Greek, President of Americans for Medical Advancement (AFMA), Ms François Barré-Sinoussi, French virologist and Nobel Prize winner in Medicine or Phisiology in 2008, and Ms Emily McIvor from the Human Society International.
The European Commission has until 3 June to issue a formal reply to Stop Vivisection, and outline whether it will move forward with legislation to ban animal testing completely.
FENS recognizes the European Citizens Initiative as an important participatory tool allowing European citizens to bring important issues into the political agenda. Furthermore, FENS welcomes the constructive dialogue that the initiative ‘Stop Vivisection’ has sparked, and it agrees with its general goal of reducing the number of animals used in research.
FENS feels however that the directive is designed to achieve precisely this goal, and its repeal would be detrimental both to animal welfare and our search for new therapies for debilitating brain disorders that affect more than 127 million of European citizens and impose an heavy burden to our society.
Access FENS position.
