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The Initiative
About Stop Vivisection
STOP VIVISECTION has been made possible thanks to an important participatory legislative tool introduced by the European Union in 2012 with the application of article 11 of the EU Treaty. It is the new "Right of initiative", which allows European citizens to "participate in the shaping of European policies" in a strictly regulated manner.
Referring to this regulatory framework eleven European citizens of different backgrounds and origins have created the Initiative STOP VIVISECTION, which has received the approval of the European Commission to proceed, and which has reached well beyond the one million certified signatures required: STOP VIVISECTION has exceeded 1.200.000 signatures accepted as valid by the authorities in charge.
The reasons for Stop Vivisection
1) The number of doctors and researchers of international renown who question the validity of animal experimentation, as a major scientific error - since it has no predictive value for humans - continues to grow.
2) From this perspective, the practice of animal experimentation is:
a. A hazard to human health and to the environment;
b. A brake for the development of new methods of biomedical research based on the extraordinary scientific discoveries of our times, making inroads everywhere;
c. An obstacle to the ability to tap into answers far more reliable, comprehensive - as well as being faster and cheaper - provided by new technologies that are relevant to humans.
3) STOP VIVISECTION was also launched to challenge and oppose the strong interests of those who make profits from animal testing, without considering either the health of citizens or the right to life, to liberty and to welfare, of all living beings.
STOP VIVISECTION was officially presented to the European Parliament on June 26, 2013, with the participation of MEPs from different political backgrounds and with the testimony of many scientists, who took part in the ceremony either directly or indirectly, by means of video conferencing and with an important introduction by Jeremy Rifkin.
STOP VIVISECTION, with more than 1.2 million signatures collected throughout Europe, wants to point to the European Commission the legislative way to proceed.
The way to proceed will be to make non-animal alternative methods, wherever applicable, compulsory, and to encourage their further development, in a concerted drive towards the rapid abolition of the useless and risky practice of animal experimentation. The practice of animal experimentation and testing have never formally undergone the process of "validation", which is currently required of all new testing methods.
Agenda of the Initiative:
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APR
25
2012
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Proposal of STOP VIVISECTION European Citizens’ Initiative to the Commission |
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JUN
22
2012
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Registration of STOP VIVISECTION by the Commission with the authorization to collecting signatures on paper and online (time available 12 months) |
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JUN
26
2013
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Conference in the European Parliament in Brussels for the presentation of STOP VIVISECTION |
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NOV
1
2013
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Deadline for the collection of signatures (a delay of 4 months has been allowed to make up for the initial 6 months of delay in providing STOP VIVISECTION with the software needed for the online collection) |
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DEC
23
2013
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Before this date all signatures (the total of which is 1.326.000) have been forwarded for certification to the competent National authorities of each Member State |
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NOV
26
2014
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Press conference in the European Parliament (Strasburgo) where the announcement is made of having reached more than one million certified signatures. The Commission asks the promoting citizens to wait for submitting their Initiative, because no date is available in its agenda for the coming 3 months. |
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MAR
3
2015
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Submission of STOP VIVISECTION to the Commission, with the presentation of the certifications, for a total of 1.173.131 certified signatures. (This total is not inclusive of the certified signatures of two Member States, which were not returned to Stop Vivisection, despite our frequent requests) |
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MAY
11
2015
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Date established by the Commission for the Hearing, both the private (in the morning) and the Public (3:00 pm. to 6:30 pm.) |
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JUN
3
2015
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Answer from the Commission to the promoters of Stop Vivisection |
Thank you
Nearly five years after it was launched, Stop Vivisection concludes an important cycle of its existence in late 2016 (See NOTE 1).
An unprecedented actor in the international scene of antivivisectionism, Stop Vivisection is the name of a European Citizens' Initiative created to speak for all those who did not - and don’t - share the official positions about an alleged utility-necessity of animal testing in order to "safeguard human health ".
The original impetus came from the approval, in 2010, of the new Directive "On the protection of animals used for scientific purposes" (Directive 2010/63 / EU) which prompted great controversy and huge disappointment. The goal, therefore, was to unite and mobilise citizens and scientists in a participatory awareness movement on the poor implementation in Europe of the significant scientific progress made in biomedical research and toxicology; to spread information on the new scientific paradigm "every species is biologically unique”; to disseminate up-to-date knowledge and arguments on the necessity of overcoming animal testing; to turn the spotlight on the vested interests and hypocrisy present in the field of research, to ask for transparency and accountability on the part of the political authorities, to openly request the end of a cruel practice not only towards millions of laboratory animals, but also of the human bei ngs subjected to erroneous science.
Some of these objectives were achieved, some not.
Thanks to the selfless hard work of many volunteers, the Initiative, Stop Vivisection collected 1,173,131 certified signatures across Europe without being an association nor a network of associations, without being anyone's property, without being a logo nor a trademark for commercial gains. The goal was to turn the spotlight on an industry as powerful as it is shrouded in secrecy at both national and Community level, which was achieved.
But concrete results in terms of reduction of the number of victims - be they laboratory animals or human beings paying an outrageosly high price for the perpetuation of an outdated and harmful practice, was not achieved. That goal is still to be achieved, this is the goal we must focus on.
Powerful forces oppose any change, and not only amongst those who openly support animal experimentation. But Stop Vivisection has shown that even small actors with negligible resources indeed (please have a look at Stop Vivisection budget report, in the following chapter here below), but with a capacity for committment and dedication inversely proportional to the economic resources, can work and disseminate important seeds for a better future. No doubt these seeds will grow and propagate in the years to come.
As far as we are concerned, we will not abandon our fight of a lifetime. Once again thank you all.
(NOTE1) On Tuesday, December 6, 2016, in Brussels, a counter-conference will take place under the patronage of MEP (M. 5 Star) Eleonora Evi, to reaffirm our reasons and to protest the simultaneous conference organised by the European Commission. A display of strength but no serious intent to consider the requests made by Stop Vivisection on behalf of 1,173,131 citizens. See in this regard the correspondence in this same site: http://www.stopvivisection.eu/it/content/institutional-initiatives#overl.
The dialogue with the Commission has culminated in a point of no return.
Simultaneously, Stop Vivisection has filed a complaint to the European Ombudsman against institutional failures of the European Commission.
STOP VIVISECTION - FINANCIAL REPORT
The Income and Expenditure for Stop Vivisection in 5 years of international mobilisation amount to just over 35,500 euro paid into Banca Etica.
Donations of more than € 500 have been reported and published by the European Commission on the official website and you can see it here:
The sole obligation of financial reporting provisions of the Eu Regulation 211/2011 for Initiatives of European citizens is to indicate in the register of the European Commission donations exceeding € 500.
The tools we have decided to use, however, have guaranteed full traceability and transparency, and it is therefore possible to reconstruct the origin and use of each entry and exit.
The channels for making donations have been two: a bank account opened at Banca Etica of Palermo and Paypal account.
PAYPAL ACCOUNT
The first donation received on this account is dated 8 June 2012. The donations were periodically transferred to the current account with Banca Etica, which was the only tool used to make various payments. From donations paypal has retained upstream its committees.
The transfers from PayPal account to bank account were as follows:
- € 4,858.60 of 05.08.2013;
- € 1,352.49 of 02.22.2014;
- € 1,899.11 of 05.12.2015;
- € 144.20 of 06.26.2015;
- € 211.22 of 11.09.2015;
- € 10.62 of 17/11/2016.
The other payments from paypal account included the following amounts:
- € 5.98 for payments connected to stopvivisection.eu domain;
- € 8.00 for other payments.
The paypal account was closed on 19 November 2016 with a balance of zero.
BANK ACCOUNT
The first donation is dated May 29, 2012. The account was closed with a zero balance on December 1, 2015. The available resources have been used as follows:
Participation in fairs and promotional events - € 2,225.80
- € 700 for event in Firenze (transfer 7/11/2012)
- € 350 for expenses reimbursement Conference International Animal Rights Conference (Luxembourg) (transfer 11/09/2013)
- € 147 for expenses reimbursement Conference International Animal Rights Conference (Luxembourg) (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 286.80 for expenses reimbursement Conference International Animal Rights Conference (Luxembourg) (transfer 04/17/2013)
€ 742 for expenses related to conference (transfer 5/8/2013)
Creation and website management - € 14,023.48
- € 3,025 for making multilingual website (transfer of 27/02/2013) - € 1576.35 for translation, website content (transfer of 27.02.2013)
- € 2,098.85 for translation, website content (transfer of 15/05/2013)
- € 1,952 for housing website website (transfer 24/10/2013)
- € 206.46 for translation, website content (transfer 03/21/2014) - € 750 for updated web site (transfer 09/12/2014)
- € 500 for updated web site (transfer 27/10/2014)
- € 250 for updated web site (transfer 19/01/2014)
- € 500 for updated web site (transfer 11/03/2015)
- € 250 for updated web site (transfer 15/05/2015)
- € 500 for updated web site (transfer 29/06/2015)
- € 2,257 for ordinary and extraordinary maintenance website (transfer 07/06/2015) - € 115.88 for renewing web services (transfer 12/10/2015)
- € 41.94 for domain renewal (partial transfer 11/21/16)
National campaigns - € 5870
- € 750 for budget campaign in Germany (transfer 11/09/2013)
- € 20 per budget campaign in Latvia (transfer 10/14/2013)
- € 1,500 for campaign budgets Austria / Luxembourg / Ireland (transfer 10/14/2013) - € 1,000 per campaign budget Poland (transfer 10/17/2013)
- € 600 for budget Campaign UK (transfer 11/18/2013)
- € 2,000 for Poland campaign budget (transfer 18/11/2013)
Communication activities - € 5,617.50
- € 605 for making videos Jeremy Rifkin (transfer 09/16/2013)
- € 300 for expenses to produce video commercials SV (transfer 23/09/2013) - € 200 for expenses to produce video commercials SV (transfer 14/10/2013) - € 344.82 for sending newsletters (transfer 17/04 / 2014)
- € 227.94 for sending newsletters (transfer 12/09/2014)
- € 373.96 for sending newsletters (bank transfers 24.11.2014, 25.11.2014 and 15.12.2014) - € 3,000 for communication activities (transfer 12/02/2015)
- € 565.78 for sending newsletters (transfer 06/29/2015)
Preparation and shipping paper signatures - € 5,941.01
- € 680 per signatures preparation for shipment (transfer 06/12/2013)
- € 520 per shipment signatures preparation (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 520 per shipment signatures preparation (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 400 per shipment signatures preparation (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 400 per shipment signatures preparation (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 960 per signatures preparation for shipment (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 430 per shipment signatures preparation (transfer 23/12/2013)
- € 2,031.01 per consignment signatures in 20 Member States and delivery signatures in Rome (transfer 17/04/2014)
Participation in the institutional hearing in Brussels - € 2,624.77
- € 424.92 for reimbursement of expenses participation hearing (transfer 12/01/2015)
- € 1348.66 for participation organisation for hearing (bank transfers 07.04.2015 and 06.29.2015)
- € 851.19 for reimbursement of expenses participation for hearing (transfer 14/09/2015)
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