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Secret French move to block animal-testing ban
French continue digging the hole theyâre in:France, home to the worldâs largest cosmetics company, LâOréal, has quietly launched a legal action aimed at killing off a historic EU ban on animal-tested cosmetics, the Guardian has learned. The EU measure, agreed this year after 13 years of negotiations, will phase in a near-total ban on the sale of animal-tested cosmetic products throughout the EU from 2009 and put a stop to all animal testing. It has been hailed as one of the most significant pieces of EU legislation on animal welfare. Besieged by lobbyists from its cosmetics industry, France has lodged a case at the European court of justice in Luxembourg demanding that the ban be quashed on legal and technical grounds. The French cosmetics industry is one of the few in Europe still to have an animal testing programme and companies such as LâOréal contribute millions of euros to the French economy. Add LâOreal to the "will not buy" list. Animal rights campaigners said they were appalled by the French move. "It has taken animal campaigners and the European parliament a frustrating 13-year struggle to finally secure legislation to outlaw the suffering of lab animals to produce trivial products like lipstick and perfume," said Wendy Higgins of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV). "It is shameful enough that it has taken this long, impeded as we have been at every stage by aggressive industry lobbying. It is even more shameful that a challenge to actually reverse the EU cosmetics animal testing ban has been brought forward." No blood for perfume! Posted by: Steve 2003-08-19 |
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