[Experimental animal research in the EU legislation]

The legislation of the European Union captures experimental animal research only in part. Binding standards can be found in various legal records of the community-legislation, and in particular in the so-called guideline for animal experimentation 86/609/EWG. But these guidelines do not represent an actual animal protection measure but rather one of harmonisation with the primary goal of unification of the regulations of the participating states in order to prevent distortions of competition and trade barriers which could harm the common market. Although the guideline contains some practicable approaches in the direction of an up-to-date animal experimentation law, it only defines general goals which allows for considerable leeway in national implementation within the individual EU countries, and it has only a limited area of legal operation. On the one hand, only vertebrae are being included, and on the other, the law is only being applied in the area of applied research and protects only animals used in product- and substance-development or test procedures as well as those used in the framework of environmental protection. Various important fields of research are thus not subject to a common regulation and are assigned to national regulation. This concerns animal experimentation in education and training or for military or so-called defence-relevant medical purposes and, in particular, the whole area of basic research including the field of genetic engineering in animals with it's growing significance. The guideline is in need of widening it's scope of application as well as of various adjustments to recent scientific findings and developments in order to become suitable as a more restrictive animal protection law on the community level. It could also be desirable to include animal protection into the catalogue of community-goals in order to make it an independent component of the politics of the Union and to establish the groundwork for a decree of comprehensive and efficient regulations.