EU roadmap for phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessments: Recommendations from a multi-stakeholder roundtable
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Abstract
The commitment to develop a roadmap for phasing out the use of animals for chemical safety assessments was part of the European Commission’s response to the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing”. The roadmap aims to outline milestones and specific actions to be implemented in the short to long-term to ultimately phase out animal testing for chemical safety assessments. To advance this goal and help define a structure of the roadmap, a multi-stakeholder roundtable workshop was organised by five animal protection non-governmental organisations in June 2024. The roundtable aimed to explore and define key elements and organisational structures for shaping the roadmap and identify pathways to facilitate the transition to a non-animal testing regulatory framework. Participants discussed a range of critical issues such as revising legislation and guidance, facilitating validation/qualification and regulatory acceptance, strengthening coordination, providing education and training in non-animal approaches, transparency and accessibility to data, establishing metrics to measure progress and securing funding. The importance of a multi-faceted approach integrating scientific, regulatory, policy, ethical, societal, and practical dimensions was emphasised, along with the critical role of transdisciplinary collaboration and combining diverse knowledge, ideas, and technologies to achieve optimal outcomes. This report summarises the main findings and discussion points and provides concrete recommendations. These are intended to facilitate the Commission’s work to develop the roadmap and may serve as a valuable resource for similar initiatives worldwide.
Plain language summary
As part of its response to the European Citizens’ Initiative “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing”, the European Commission committed to developing a roadmap to eliminate the use of animals for the safety testing of chemicals. Five animal protection non-governmental organisations organised a roundtable in June 2024 to support this effort, bringing together experts from different fields. The roundtable aimed to identify important elements and organisational structures for shaping the roadmap and explore practical steps to move to a regulatory system that does not rely on animal testing. Discussions covered revising current chemicals legislation, accelerating the acceptance of non-animal methods, creating EU databases to improve data sharing, strengthening cooperation and communication, building skills and expertise in non-animal methods, monitoring progress and increasing funding. This report summarises the main ideas and recommendations from the roundtable to help guide the Commission’s work on the roadmap.
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