The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled “Save cruelty-free cosmetics - Commit to a Europe without animal testing”, which collected more than 1.2 million signatures, has just been validated by the European Commission, which now has until 25 July 2025 to outline the measures it will take.
The European Commission announced on 26 January 2023 that the initiative “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics - Commit to a Europe without Animal Testing” has become the ninth successful European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI).
The initiative calls on the Commission to strengthen and extend the existing EU bans on animal testing for cosmetics and the marketing of animal-tested ingredients, and to adopt a legislative proposal setting out a roadmap for the phasing out of all animal testing before the end of the Commission’s current mandate.
In the space of one year, it has gathered a total of 1,217,916 signatures from 27 European countries. Among the most mobilised and those who gathered the highest number of signatures:
• Germany: 257,988,
• France: 248,070,
• Italy: 91,992,
• Czechia: 90,139,
• Spain: 66,493,
• Bulgaria: 54,137…
The Commission will now meet with the organisers to discuss the initiative in detail in the coming weeks.
A public hearing will be organised by the European Parliament.
The Commission has until 25 July 2023 to present its formal response, setting out the steps it intends to take:
• Propose a legislation
• Take other non-legislative measures
• Or take no action at all
Sources
• Daily News …
