Strasbourg, 19/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the Greens/EFA group has hailed the Parliament's decision in plenary to support the Greens' call for the use of carcinogens, mutagens and toxic products to be banned from cosmetics (see Europe of 12 June, p.12). Belgian Paul Lannoye is particularly happy that the Parliament has rejected a measure in the Council's common position to ban the marketing of cosmetics tested on animals with a ban on animal testing, a manoeuvre to make the directive meet WTO rules. Lannoye said that it was totally premature of the Council to act like this without any official protest from its trading partners and the Council's attitude was all the more incomprehensible in that the WTO foresees exceptions to its own rules in terms of animal welfare.