All Wales Euro MP Jill Evans will today (Tuesday, 13th March) meet with representatives of the RSPCA in Strasbourg to support their calls for a complete sales ban on new cosmetics tested on animals.

Back in 1993 the European Union agreed to ban the sale of cosmetics tested on animals after 1998. However EU governments in the Council of Ministers decided that this date should be postponed until alternative non-animal test methods were available. Eight years later, the ban has still not been implemented, even though alternative methods have now been developed and there are 8,000 cosmetics ingridients already in use.

Jill Evans MEP, who is a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Consumer Policy said,

"Animals are sadly still being used to test ingredients for products such as shampoo and anti-wrinkle cream. Although there is a voluntary ban on animal testing for cosmetics in the UK, in Europe alone around 38,000 animals are still suffering in experiments every year to develop and test new cosmetic ingredients and products."

"The European Commission is now proposing to replace the original ban on selling new cosmetics tested on animals with just a ban on animal testing in the EU. But a test ban alone will only lead to cosmetics companies moving their animal testing to laboratories in countries outside the EU. All the new cosmetic products tested on animals elsewhere will continue to be sold in our shops and supermarkets."

"I look forward to discussing with the RSPCA how we can tackle this issue and stop the cruel and unnecessary suffering of thousands of animals each year."

The European Parliament and EU governments will be considering the European Commission proposal in the next few months. Further information is available from the RSPCA website: www.rspca.org.uk

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