madam president let me join those members who consider the second-reading agreement a well-balanced compromise given the complexity of the matter
it shows the way for further improvements in the sector towards more efficient and safer plant protection products and is flexible enough to avoid situations in which the ban on certain pesticides would in the final analysis reduce the irreproachability of agricultural products
in particular i wish to welcome the improvement of the original commission proposal aimed at avoiding the duplication of tests and studies and promoting non-animal tests
i hope that this could have an impact on other related sectors such as plant protection product data requirements which are right now moving through their own revision process
even if pesticides in contrast to chemicals are intended to be toxic and their safety assessment is therefore a special case it does not mean that redundant animal testing should take place or that scientific knowledge cannot develop in ways that will identify further redundancies and that further potential reduction in animal testing will be possible in future
it should be noted that development and registration of new agricultural pesticides or plant protection products can use upwards of twelve zero animals in dozens of separate and often overlapping tests
