Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

[**Avis juridique important**](../../../editorial/legal_notice.htm)

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# 91998E1789

**WRITTEN QUESTION No. 1789/98 by Viviane REDING to the Council. Postponement of the ban on testing on animals** 
  
*Official Journal C 013 , 18/01/1999 P. 0083*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1789/98

by Viviane Reding (PPE) to the Council

(11 June 1998)

Subject: Postponement of the ban on testing on animals

Given that Directive 93/35/EEC(1) provides for a ban on testing on animals in the cosmetics industry and lays down that such testing must be replaced by alternative methods of testing as from 1 January 1998,

that some EU Member States (the Netherlands and Germany) have introduced such a ban but that most have not done so,

that the cosmetics industry already has available thousands of ingredients which have been tested on animals,

that alternatives to most, frequently cruel, tests on live animals exist but are not being used and that research into new alternative methods of testing finds very little support,

and that the Commission has still not taken any action in respect of the promised directive on a ban on testing on animals for finished cosmetics products,

why is the Council postponing the ban provided for in the Directive which was due to enter into force in 1998? In the Council's view, does commercial policy take precedence over animal welfare? On what grounds does the Council keep postponing decisions on this issue?

Reply

(24 September 1998)

The Council would draw the Honourable Member's attention to the answer given by the Commission to Written Question No 1790/98 on the same subject. The decision to defer until 30 June 2000 the implementation of the ban on testing on animals was taken by the Commission on the basis of Directive 97/18/EC, bearing in mind the aim of protecting public health and the lack of satisfactory progress made in developing methods to replace such testing.

(1) OJ L 151, 23.6.1993, p. 32.

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