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The following documents are intended as guidance to assist Member States and others affected by this Directive to arrive at a common understanding of the provisions contained in the Directive. All comments should be considered only within the context of Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

Only the Court of Justice of the European Union is entitled to interpret EU law with legally binding authority.

Consensus documents

The National Contact Points (NCP) of the Member States responsible for the implementation of Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and the Commission agreed to discuss a number of articles contained in the Directive with a view to finding a common approach throughout the EU.

Some elements of the Directive have been/are subject to specific Expert Working Group (EWG) meetings to which all Member States and main stakeholder organisations are invited to nominate experts. The outcome of the EWG meetings is then presented to NCP for endorsement.

The consensus on the understanding of the elements discussed at the NCP meetings are presented below to promote uniform implementation and application of the Directive. It is important to note that some of these documents may present "work in progress" (indicated as such). However, it was felt important to inform all those affected by the Directive as soon as progress is made.

The consensus document II of 22-23 March 2012 covers the principles of creation, establishment and maintenance of genetically altered animal lines and how these are considered within project authorisation and statistical reporting.

The consensus document I of 22-23 March 2012 covers the principles of a common, non-binding education and training framework of functions detailed in Article 23(2).

The consensus document of 6-7 October 2011 covers the following articles:

Article 1(5)	Practices that are exempted from the scope of the Directive
Article 3	Definitions for a procedure and project
Article 16	Use, re-use and continued use
Article 40	Multiple generic projects
Article 41	Complex or multi-disciplinary projects