Progress Report On EU Animal Experiment Welfare And Care

In 2010 the EU established a directive for EU nations to put legislation in place to achieve a set of minimum welfare standards for animals used in experiments. These standards must be met with legislation by January 1, 2013. This report provides an update on how far along EU nations are at meeting this goal.

Animal Testing Perspectives, which compiled the information, summarized the directives into six steps: 1. government consultations, 2. public consultations, 3. draft text, 4. legislative process, 5. adoption, and 6. decrees and ordinances.

As of April 2012, of the 17 countries for which information was available, no country is currently holding government consultations but nine countries are at the stage of engaging in public consultations. Six countries have the internal government working on a draft of the text, while one (Czech Republic) has released the draft for legislative review. Denmark is the only country that has officially published the language of the decree. No countries have made it to the final stage of implementing these decrees.