The European Parliament has strengthened its support for non-animal approaches for chemical safety assessment at a vital time in Europe’s transition to humane, species-relevant science.

The new Basic Regulation for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which will define the function and scope of its work, is moving towards the final stages of negotiations at the European Parliament. With a majority of 526-56, MEPs voted in favour of a Parliamentary position which embeds the development, validation, use and regulatory acceptance of non-animal test methods and approaches into ECHA's tasks and objectives. This now becomes the official view of the European Parliament, in response to a proposal for a new law set out by the European Commission.

This Basic Regulation will help to modernise ECHA’s work by ensuring non-animal approaches are prioritised, and define the way it is managed and funded. This regulation will also formalise an accredited stakeholders’ forum which is vital to maintaining engagement and transparency.

We have long supported and called for many of the measured addressed by the Basic Regulation.

With the European Commission’s Roadmap for the phasing-out of animal testing for chemicals due to be published in May, this is a particularly important move as ECHA has a vital role to play in the transition away from the use of animals in regulatory toxicity testing.

This vote will soon be followed by negotiations between the European Parliament, European Council and European Commission, to finalise the regulation before it is formally adopted by all institutions of the EU and comes into force. We will continue to call for finalised text which ensures a clear and strong mandate for ECHA in the promotion and adoption of non-animal approaches.

The Roadmap was a commitment made in response to our 2021 European Citizens’ Initiative, ‘Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing’, which was signed by over 1.2 million people. We have been directly involved in the working groups which drafted the Roadmap.

Our Head of Public Affairs, Dylan Underhill, said: “The strong majority of support in this vote aligns with the political and public demand for a future where non-animal approaches are the accepted standard. We now call on EU Member States and the European Commission to maintain this positive momentum towards modern and cruelty-free regulatory science.

“As the recent release of statistics for 2023 shows, progress in reducing the number of animals suffering in scientific experiments stalled. The Roadmap needs to underpin bold strategies and clear implementation plans, with concrete timelines and milestones, to bring about the transformative change that European citizens want. Without this, we will be condemned to never-ending stagnation and minor reductions.”