The European Commission has published plans to reform its current animal-welfare directive. The draft proposal has drawn criticism from industry groups who say the new rules will merely lead to increased bureaucracy without commensurate benefits for animal welfare. The revised directive is aimed at strengthening protection for animals used in research and would address the differing standards across member states. Besides banning the use of great apes, the new provisions would require increased cage sizes and rigorous ethical evaluations to be carried out before projects using animals are authorized. There are concerns, however, that implementing such changes will disproportionately burden small and medium-sized companies, and may push animal research out to countries with lower standards, such as China and India. Simon Festing, executive director of the Research Defence Society, a London-based organization that represents scientists using animals for medical research, says the directive is exceptionally disappointing. He thinks it is unlikely to achieve the goal of improved animal welfare and could threaten burgeoning biotech in the EU. “Countries that are not paying sufficient attention to these changes risk strangling a potential biotechnology sector in the future,” says Festing. “It seems to us extremely shortsighted of countries like Poland and the Czech Republic to say that they're not too bothered because they don't have that much biotechnology.” The new provisions will be debated for at least a year before they become law.