Strasbourg, 11/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Following its rapporteur, German Social Democrat Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, the European Parliament amended the Council's common position on amending the 1976 directive on cosmetic products (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.15). The Parliament insists on introducing a provision allowing for all tests on animals for verifying the harmful effects of ingredients and cosmetic products to be phased out. It also insists on a ban (already foreseen in the 1993 directive) on the marketing of products tested on animals when there is an alternative testing method. It calls on the Commission to effectively implement the ban according to a timetable comprising, for each experiment in progress using animals, a maximum time limit of five years. The Commission could, however, make exceptions for experiments on the toxicity of repeated doses, toxicity affecting reproduction and toxicokinetics, for which there are no valid alternative methods to date, by granting them a maximum period of ten years from the date when the directive takes effect (392 to 119 and 22 abstentions). Pending a total sales ban on products tested on animals, the Parliament also calls for the packaging of such products to mention that they have been tested on animals. The label should take up 20% of the surface of the package. Other amendments concern consumer protection and aim to guarantee exclusion of carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic substances that are harmful for the reproductive cycle, as well as to limit the use of allergenic substances. The Parliament mainly hopes that the use of fragrances will be avoided when such fragrances do not fulfil an essential purpose, mainly in products for children and in personal hygiene products for external use. It calls for 26 allergenic fragrances to be indicated on the list of ingredients when they exceed a certain concentration.
During the debate, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen assured the Parliament that the Commission shares its concern about the risks relating to carcinogenic or mutagenic substances. He specified that new measures are envisaged. The Commission is also in favour of better labelling of allergenic substances, he said, before going on to add that the Council's common position largely takes into account the need to reduce the suffering inflicted on animals for testing purposes. Mr Liikanen recalled that, for a certain number of toxicological parameters, there are not yet alternative methods allowing a high level of health protection. He also stressed that this concern was not taken into account by the World Trade Organisation. Under these conditions, Mr Liikanen felt that a ban on the marketing of products tested on animals may be difficult to apply. Stressing the large number of substances that enter into the production of perfumes, he also considered it "infeasible and disproportionate" to mention all the fragrances used in the list of ingredients.