Our Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics / End Animal Testing European Citizens’ Initiative will receive a hearing in the European Parliament after confirmation that it has passed the threshold of one million verified signatures – but we still need your support to keep the pressure on for change.

All signatures from across the EU have been analysed, with 1,217,916 signatures being verified as authentic. This makes it just the seventh ECI out of a total of 90 to have been registered that have successfully passed the threshold.

That’s over 1.2 million people who have demanded an end to the outdated and unreliable use of animals in cosmetics and chemicals tests, as well as an ambitious plan to bring all experiments on animals to an end. 

The European Commission will now carefully examine the ECI, and Commission representatives will soon meet with ourselves and the other organisers, so we can explain the issues behind the ECI.

A hearing in the European Parliament will follow this spring, including a possible vote on animal testing, before the Commission gives its formal response and explains what action it proposes this summer.

Michelle Thew, our Chief Executive, said: “Huge thanks to each and every one of the 1.2 million people who have signed this ECI and given a voice to the over ten million animals used in laboratories in the EU every year. We are incredibly proud of this collaborative landmark and look forward to taking our case to the European Parliament.

“Europe’s lawmakers must now surely appreciate the strength of feeling there is on this issue. The people of Europe have made the task for the European Commission clear: it must come forward with substantive legislative proposals to phase out animal experiments and end the suffering. We demand change in testing and research. It is high time for Europe to evolve past cruel and outdated animal testing.”

You can help us build on this successful ECI by emailing the European Commission to make sure that they listen to our call for an end to animal testing. Use our simple tool to email the Commission. Together, we can help achieve a Europe in which no animals suffer in laboratories.