GUE/NGL President Gabi Zimmer strongly criticised the European Commission's reaction to the “Stop Vivisection” Citizens' Initiative.

The Commission only expressed vague intentions and paid lip service to the initiative, rather than undertaking to start a legislative procedure.

Signatures by 1.17 million citizens from 26 EU member states supporting the “Stop Vivisection” Citizens' Initiative were submitted to the European Commission on 3 March 2015 demanding the abolition of animal experiments. This was the third European Citizens' Initiative which reached the necessary quorum.

The GUE/NGL Group is strongly critical of this lack of action by the Commission, which intends neither to invest additional funds in non-animal research from the Horizon 2020 budget nor to carry out an early review of EU legislation on animal experiments (Directive 2010/63/ EU).

In this way, the concerns of 1.17 million signatories or 80 percent of EU citizens speaking out against animal testing, according to surveys, are being disregarded.

“The Commission´s response does not reflect citizens´ concerns and will undoubtedly lead to an even greater disenchantment with politics and further undermine the credibility of the European institutions. And it does not help at all to reduce animal experiments,” Gabi Zimmer concluded.