Today, experiments on animals in European Union Member States are governed by European Directive 86/609/CEE which constitutes the minimum legal framework. Each State transposes it into its own legislation, with the possibility of improving it. In particular, this advocates the development of alternative methods and the reduction in the number of animals used. This directive was integrated into French law via the decree of 19th October 1987, reinforced by the decree of 29th May 2001.

Changes
Since 1986, changes in attitude and the work of animal defence associations have helped to move the Directive forward through votes on a certain number of amendments. The adoption, for example, of Declaration No. 40 in September 2007 should enable experiments on primates to be called into question. Other directives have also been published to regulate certain aspects of animal experiments. This is also true for cosmetic products governed by Directive 93, amended on 15th January 2007 by a 7th amendment which enabled experiments of cosmetics on animals and the marketing of products in this way to be banned progressively by 2013. The European Union has also regulated chemical products with the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of CHemicals) law. Since June 2007, a central agency has been responsible for registering and evaluating chemical products and authorising or prohibiting their use.

Rules which are poorly applied or ignored
Although these European advances are fully in tune with One Voice’s campaign, the number of animals used continues to increase, including for the development of beauty products (see the European Commission’s statistical report). The suffering of these animals has not diminished and there is no real development policy for alternative methods. The rules set are either poorly applied, incorrectly transposed into national law or simply ignored.

Working for a root and branch review of the European Directive…
As the French representative of the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments, One Voice is campaigning for a root and branch review of this European Directive, which would now have the objective of "protecting animals and reducing their suffering". In the context of this review, One Voice and the other member associations of the European Coalition, presented the UE with a joint text, featuring a certain number of measures and recommendations. In particular, these contained reducing in a tangible and sustainable way the number of animals used, enshrining the development of substitute methods as part of general Member State policy and define transparency and ethical rules relating to animal experimentation practices.

…and avant-garde legislation in France
At the same time as its actions with European bodies, One Voice is also lobbying French public authorities for France to do better and adopt avant-garde legislation. This involves the inclusion of a conscience clause for students, teachers and researchers who refuse to carry out tests on animals as has already been enshrined in Italian law since 1993 and Israeli law since 1999; the banning of experiments on dogs and cats; the banning of xenografts and cloning and the banning of experiments for armaments. One Voice feels that these are just a few virtuous measures that would enable France to have first-rate legislation related to animal experiments.
In relation to Directive 91, One Voice feels that it is not enough to simply ban tests for the development of beauty products as laboratories retain the possibility to have their products tested in countries where legislation does allow it. Especially in France, One Voice is defending the idea of a complete ban on the marketing of cosmetics tested on animals, regardless of their source. A law like this would visibly change animal experimentation practices.