EU petition for banning animal testing in industry receives “record-breaking” 1.4M signatures

02 Sep 2022 --- As the EU petition to ban animal testing recently closed, 1,413,383 EU citizens signed the Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics/End Animal Testing European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), demanding an end to animal testing.

Via the petition, the initiative organizers are expected to submit the signatures to the EU member states for validation within three months. After this,they can take it to the European Commission (EC) and Parliament for further action.

This is the second time ECI voiced against animal testing and has surpassed the one million signature mark. The first was Stop Vivisection in 2015.

Call for action
The top priorities, listed by Brussels-based Cruelty Free Europe, include a comprehensive plan to end animal experiments in the EU with agreed milestones, targets and timetables, implementation of a ban on animal testing in cosmetics and the sale of animal-tested cosmetics. 

As well as a review of EU funding and support for the development and validation of non-animal testing methods and end to the use of dogs, cats and non-human primates in experiments in Europe.

The End Animal Testing ECI was launched in August 2021 by animal protection organizations Cruelty Free Europe, PETA, Eurogroup for Animals, the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments and HSI Europe. 

It was also supported by global beauty and personal care companies, The Body Shop and Dove, and actively promoted by a coalition of groups and campaigners from all around Europe.A second ECI organized by Cruelty Free Europe and partners on the issue of animal testing has surpassed the one million signature mark. 

“We hope that this time the EC, Members of the EU Parliament and national governments take heed and act at once to end the animal testing of ingredients used in cosmetics. We also need an ambitious and urgent plan to consign all other experiments on animals to the history books where they belong,” says Kerry Postlewhite, director of public affairs at Cruelty Free Europe.

Crucial months ahead
ECI has the potential to influence lawmakers in Europe. It is an official EU initiative through which citizens of member states can voice their demands. The EU Parliament calls it “an important instrument of participatory democracy in the EU.”

After the deadline for collecting signatures has passed, the EU commission verifies each signature and then carefully examines the initiative. Within one month, commission representatives meet the organizer to hear in detail the issues raised.

Within three months of validation, the initiative will have a full plenary hearing in the EU Parliament, followed by a possible vote.

The commission is expected to adopt a formal response spelling out what action it will propose in response to the citizens’ initiative, if any, and the reasons for doing or not doing so within six months of receiving the final signatures.

Postlewhite applauded the strength of the people against animal testing and called upon the EU to heed the issue. “The people of Europe have made the task for the EC clear: it must come forward with substantive legislative proposals to phase out animal experiments and end the suffering. We demand change in testing and research. It is high time for Europe to evolve past cruel and outdated animal testing,” she underscores.

In November this year, the EC annual conference will discuss challenges that needs to be addressed to make animal-free cosmetic and chemical regulations and testing a reality within the EU. 

Need for change
Unilever warned that the progress on banning animal testing for good was stalled in the EU in May. Unilever underscored that the EU chemicals regulatory body, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), still requires animal testing despite the EU’s cosmetics ban on animal testing, implemented in 2013.

“Until policymakers accept the leading-edge application of new approach methodologies (tests that don’t use animals), we’ll continue to advocate strongly for the regulatory changes needed to uphold the EU’s legal requirement that non-animal approaches are used if available,” asserted the FMCG giant.

PersonalCareInsights spoke to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in July to understand their stance on cruelty-free policy action.

The ECHA defended animal testing under certain conditions for the long-term protection of human and environmental health.

“ECHA is committed to avoiding any unnecessary testing on animals; animal testing should only be used as a last resort,” Ofelia Bercaru, director for prioritization and integration at ECHA, shared.

Bercaru explains that the EU’s chemicals legislation is set up to protect people and the environment from the harm that hazardous chemicals may pose.“The people of Europe have made the task for the European Commission clear,” says Postlewhite.

“Companies that place products on the markets must ensure their safety, and for that purpose, animal testing is still, in some cases, necessary. ECHA’s role is to ensure that companies provide the information required by the law to prove that the substances can be manufactured and used safely,” says Bercaru.

“Tide is turning”
In August, the American Chemical Society highlighted that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is wholly evaluating its animal testing requirement, thus impacting the cosmetics sector.

“The FDA promotes using the 3 R’s – replace, reduce and refine – in the development and use of alternatives to animal testing as well as adherence to the most humane methods available within the limits of scientific capability when animals are used for testing the safety of chemicals and finished cosmetic products,” a spokesperson at the FDA told PersonalCareInsights.

The ACS reports that the FDA only allowed limited alternatives to animal testing in the past. However, “the tide is turning.” In June, the FDA held a meeting with the Science Board regarding the “development, qualification and adoption of new alternative methods for regulatory use” against animal testing.

By Radhika Sikaria

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