Brussels, 08/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Parliament and the Council, meeting on Monday within the Conciliation Committee, failed to bring their points of view closer on the proposal aimed at amending the 1976 directive on cosmetic products (76/768/EEC).
The two institutions stuck fast to their positions which meant the attempt at conciliation stumbled on three things: a) the suitability of fixing a timetable for gradually banning animal testing within a maximum of five years, as the Parliament requests; b) the ban on the sale of new cosmetic products tested on animals if other methods of testing, validated at international level, exist. To this requirement of the Parliament, the Council continues to prefer a ban on animal testing that it considers more conform to WTO rules; 3) the labelling of products and components tested on animals pending a total ban on the sale of products tested (see EUROPE of 10 and 11 June, p.15). Dagmar Roth Behrendt, German Social Democrat and rapporteur on this issue, stressed before the press the differences that separate the two institutions, as the Council's approach does not, she believes, take consumers sufficiently into account ("conceptual differences" stressed the Nea Demokratia member, Giorgios Dimitrakopoulos, who conducted conciliation for the Parliament). "There must be a ban on marketing products", Dagmar Roth Behrendt hammered home, before adding: "the Council provides for compulsory labelling solely for thirty months although the duration of the products is longer".
Erkki Liikanen, Industry Commissioner, summarised the discussion by placing emphasis on three challenges to be raised: - ensure there are more alternative methods to animal testing; - work towards international validation of a greater number of such alternative methods; - and reflect on what one must do if, at the buffer date for the ban on animal testing, there are no alternative methods. The Parliament and the Council will pursue their rapprochement effort during a next meeting of the Conciliation Committee, probably on 6 November.