munich

A committee of the German parliament will this month begin work on a possible compromise between opposing factions who have been fighting over amendments to the 1986 animal protection law that were proposed last year by the cabinet.

The move follows the emergence of a new challenge to the work of German biologists, namely a proposal submitted last autumn by the opposition Social Democrat party (SPD) that the protection of animal rights should be enshrined in the constitution.

One of the main goals of the cabinet's proposal is to reduce the bureaucratic burden on scientists applying for licences for animal experiments.

The bill containing the amendments was approved by the Bundestag, the conservative-dominated lower house, last November. But the Bundesrat, the upper house in which the SPD has a majority, rejected the bill. The opposition wants stricter controls on the handling of farm animals, and a clause requiring alternatives to animal experiments to be used wherever possible.

Germany's animal protection law is the strictest in the European Union (EU). Whereas in most countries scientists holding personal licences can conduct experiments according to their own timetables, German scientists have to apply for approval for each separate experiment.

Amendment to the German law has become necessary to bring it into line with new EU rules, and the government is keen to take the opportunity to introduce other changes to make life easier for researchers. One proposed change would give automatic approval to protocols that have not been formally approved within three months of submission to regional government offices (see Nature 385, 760; 1997).

Researchers have welcomed this proposal, pointing out that authorities hostile to animal research often draw out approval procedures for more than six months. Scientists argue that strict regulations threaten the inter-national competitiveness of the life sciences in Germany. “Time is a decisive factor in science, while collaboration with international research groups demands flexibility,” says Jean-Alice Büttner-Ennevener, a professor of neuropathology at the University of Munich.

But animal rights activists are dismayed at the proposed change. “This would be a big reversal of the achievements we have made in the past,” says Jörg Styrie, scientific adviser of Bund gegen Mißbrauch der Tiere, the association opposing animal abuse.

In the current political climate, a compromise is unlikely before the federal elections in September. Nor is the proposed change to the constitution likely to be resolved soon. Demands by the SPD and the Greens that the protection of animal rights be included in constitutional law, alongside guarantees for the freedom of science and research, would make Germany the only country in Europe where animal welfare is a constitutional issue.

Constitutional changes require a two-thirds majority in parliament, and no party or coalition is likely to achieve that in the foreseeable future. But researchers remain worried. “If animal protection became a constitutional matter, it would constantly clash with the constitutional freedom to research,” says Janerik Bohling, spokesman of the Society of Health and Research, Germany's main research lobby group. And last week a local referendum voted in favour of the Bavarian government considering changes to the Bavarian constitution, including animal protection.

Academic and industrial researchers “could be driven out of Germany”, says Bohling. The rights of scientists would have to be weighed up against the rights of animals during every licence approval, and challenges to the ethical status of experiments could end up in long battles in the constitutional courts.

The number of experimental animals used in Germany decreased by almost 50 per cent over the first half of the 1990s, to 1.6 million in 1995. According to the German centre for alternatives to animal testing, ZEBET, in Berlin, this is mainly due to progress in developing alternatives.