The European Commission (EC) has adopted its long-delayed legislative proposal to revise the 20-year-old Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals in experiments.
More than 12 million animals are used in EU labs each year, however, over 20 years of scientific developments, including non-animal alternatives, are not reflected in the existing legislation.
Additionally, animals used for basic medical research, education and training, have been left unregulated, and hundreds of thousands of sentient foetal and invertebrate animals are experimented on each year without any legal protection at all.
There is also no harmonised process to ethically review and prospectively authorise animal research in the member states, meaning many experiments are likely to have been duplicated or could have been replaced by non-animal alternative test methods.
The EC first acknowledged in 2001 that the directive was outdated and in need of improvement, but progress on producing a draft has been painfully slow.
Today's draft legislation does include a great ape test ban, but as no apes are used in EU research at the moment, this is considered by many animal advocates as something of a token gesture.
Mandatory prospective and retrospective ethical review of some, but not all, animal experiments has also been proposed.
Non-animal medical research charity the Dr Hadwen Trust has said much more must be done to speed up the replacement of animals with non-animal methods.
Emily McIvor, Dr Hadwen Trust policy director, said: 'It is regrettable that animals in laboratories have had to wait so long for this inadequate law to be updated.
'Far too many animals have no protection from even the very highest levels of suffering, and we must act to change that.
'The Dr Hadwen Trust welcomes this draft legislation and some of the positive measures it contains such as the ban on use of great apes in experiments.
'However, it is vital that the revision of Directive 86/609 is about more than token gestures and bigger cage sizes.
'To make this law fit for a morally and scientifically progressive 21st century, the ultimate goal of replacing animals with alternatives must be at the heart of the legislation.
'This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Europe to lead the world in ending animal experiments and replacing them with the most technologically advanced non-animal techniques science can offer.' The Dr Hadwen Trust is leading the campaign for an EU-wide strategy to vastly increase investment in new non-animal replacement methods through Directive 86/609.
In July the charity brought primatologist Dr Jane Goodall DBE to the European Parliament to hand in a 150,000 signature petition from citizens in 13 member states calling for greater action on alternatives, including the creation of an EU Centre of Excellence in replacement research.
Current EU activity focuses on regulatory toxicology, which only constitutes around 10 per cent of EU animal use.
The Dr Hadwen Trust will be calling for an extension of the scope of the directive to include all sentient animals used by the research industry.
A complete immediate ban on experiments causing severe or prolonged pain, suffering or distress will also be addressed, as well as clear targets for decreasing animal use through application of replacement techniques.
