EU Animal Testing, The EU promised Wednesday to phase out creature testing in Europe however said it would be "untimely" to boycott it through and through as requested by an appeal with 1.1 million names.
The European Commission, the official arm of the 28-country European Union, got the request in March from Stop Vivisection, an European citizens' initiative.
"Thanks to major innovative advances, Europe is reducing the use of creature testing," European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen said in a statement.
"Notwithstanding, a complete boycott on creature research in the EU would be untimely and it would risk chasing out biomedical research from Europe," included the VP for jobs, development, investment and competitiveness.
EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella said Brussels was responding to the citizens' initiative by "taking various actions to empower faster progress in the uptake and use of option approaches" to creature testing.
Vella stressed: "a definitive point of EU legislation is to phase out all creature testing".
The commission statement said some creature studies are "still expected to propel research and to safeguard human, creature and ecological wellbeing" despite innovative breakthroughs.
The campaigners oppose a 2010 EU law which allows creature tests yet says they should be supplanted by other methods where possible and that suffering should be kept to a minimum.
Instead, the gathering wants an altogether boycott on creature experimentation.
According to EU figures for 2011, around 11.5 million animals experienced tests for scientific purposes.
The European Commission, the official arm of the 28-country European Union, got the request in March from Stop Vivisection, an European citizens' initiative.
"Thanks to major innovative advances, Europe is reducing the use of creature testing," European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen said in a statement.
"Notwithstanding, a complete boycott on creature research in the EU would be untimely and it would risk chasing out biomedical research from Europe," included the VP for jobs, development, investment and competitiveness.
EU Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella said Brussels was responding to the citizens' initiative by "taking various actions to empower faster progress in the uptake and use of option approaches" to creature testing.
Vella stressed: "a definitive point of EU legislation is to phase out all creature testing".
The commission statement said some creature studies are "still expected to propel research and to safeguard human, creature and ecological wellbeing" despite innovative breakthroughs.
The campaigners oppose a 2010 EU law which allows creature tests yet says they should be supplanted by other methods where possible and that suffering should be kept to a minimum.
Instead, the gathering wants an altogether boycott on creature experimentation.
According to EU figures for 2011, around 11.5 million animals experienced tests for scientific purposes.
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