The initiators of the petition have set the goal, to urge the European Commission "on the basis of significant ethical objections and clear scientific evidence for the lack of validity of an animal model to predict the response in humans" in order to override the European Directive 2010/63/EU and to submit a new proposal based on the abolition of animal testing in both, the biomedical and toxicological research. Instead of animal use the application of data with direct relevance to the human should be prescribed.

The signatures were handed over the petitions committee in Brussels already last year on 26 November. As the EU Commission must now react until the beginning of June this year, in which way it will give a recommendation due to the input of citizens, a debate as organised. In the run-up to this event, European scientists had expressed diverse objections to an amendment.

Some scientists as wells as the initiators of the petition, the French veterinarian André Menache, Gianni Tamino and some others reported, that results from animal studies are not able to predict a human reaction, therefore it is not possible to guarantee the safety of medicines and chemicals. The criticism was expressed whether the EU directive is not even hindering progress in the development of animal-free Methods. Critics called for an in-depth scientific discussion about this topic in order to develop a new strategy to replace the animal use.

The chairman of the EU Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the Christian Democrat Czeslaw Adam Siekierski, who was leading the debate
regarded the petition as an important initiative. As an outcome of the debate he would recommend the European Commission and the parliamentary
committees to go into the proposed deeper discussion.

Source:
http://www.frame.org.uk/eu-debate-on-animal-experiments/
http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-initiative/
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/
http://www.theguardian.com/