A commitment to plan the full replacement of animal testing in managing the safety of chemicals in the European Union was today described by the European Commission at the annual conference of the European Partnership for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EPAA). This is welcome news ahead of proposed changes to REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) regulations which are scheduled for next year.

Joanna Drake, Deputy Director-General for Implementation, Impact & Sustainable Investment Strategies at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, highlighted that EU authorities are committed to developing “a European roadmap towards full replacement of animal testing” under chemicals legislation.

The Commission will work with ECHA on a roadmap which will identify what is needed for a transition to an animal-free system for regulating industrial chemicals, and in doing so, will steer the development of non-animal approaches as well as focusing efforts to integrate the use of non-animal methods into the chemicals regulations. 

The roadmap will also look to apply the non-animal methods and approaches already available today, as well as considering how the overall regulatory system itself may need to change in order to accommodate the use of non-animal methods. The Commission also hopes that the chemicals roadmap will set an example for other policy areas that still use animals. 

Current REACH regulations, which were introduced in 2007, manage chemical safety in the EU and have traditionally relied on animal tests involving guinea pigs, rabbits, fish, birds, rats and mice. We estimate that over 2.6 million animals have been tested on and killed so far in this process.

Our Director of Public Affairs, Kerry Postlewhite, said: “This roadmap is most welcome and Europe’s chemicals regulations must evolve without delay so we can progress along that road. It is essential that chemicals regulations are future-proofed now, so that available non-animal methods can be used without bureaucratic obstacles.

“We have been concerned that millions more animals could be at risk if necessary changes to the CLP and REACH regulations were not made. We now have a great opportunity to transform EU chemicals regulation with brave, bold and modern initiatives so that we can ensure human health and the environment are protected by managing chemicals without the addition of new animal testing requirements.

“We have been advocating for a roadmap, and chemicals legislation that significantly speeds up the uptake of non-animal methods, so we are thrilled that the Commission is listening and acting. Our European Citizens’ Initiative, currently being verified by member states, called for exactly this transformation in EU chemicals regulation so that human health and the environment are protected by managing chemicals without animals. We are thrilled that the Commission is listening and acting.”