Council of the EU: Test method development anchored as a political goal
Suitable, internationally standardised test methods are essential to ensure that legal regulations on the safety of chemicals and materials can keep pace with innovation. One of the aims of the Malta Initiative is to ensure that these methods are developed systematically and consistently with a view to European legislation.
In 2024 two configurations of the European Council - the Environment Council configuration and the Competition Council configuration (Research) - included this idea in their conclusions, giving them strong political weight.
Conclusions of Environment Council configuration (June 2024)
At the initiative of the Netherlands, the Environment Council configuration expressly encourages the development of test methods that can be used for regulatory purposes and requests appropriate funding. The Council also calls on the European Commission to develop a European Test method and Validation Strategy:
“THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (…) 32. STRESSES the necessity of sound testing methods to identify possible negative impacts of exposure to chemical substances and establish legislation to guarantee safe use of chemicals on several types of toxicological characteristics, while avoiding the use of animal testing as much as possible; ENCOURAGES the development of testing guidelines, cooperation and exchange of information between all actors to promote reproducibility and transferability of results; INVITES the Commission to develop a European Test Method and Validation Strategy; INVITES the Commission and the Member States to address any possible backlog in pre-validation efforts for existing testing methods and to incentivise adequate funding; (…)”
Conclusions of Competitiveness Council configuration (November 2024)
The Competition Council takes up the issue in its conclusions on the Commission's communication ‘Advanced materials for industrial leadership’. This communication states under the heading „6. FOSTERING THE PRODUCTION & USE OF ADVANCED MATERIALS (…) It is important to ensure that innovations in advanced materials are compliant with existing regulations and fit for purpose, this makes it necessary to put in harmonised methods and assessment tools for the characterisation and testing of advanced materials. It is also important for these harmonised methods and assessment tools to have gained regulatory acceptance. (…)”
At Germany's initiative, the Competition Council configuration also emphasized this point in its conclusions: “The Council of the European Union (…) 4. (…) RECOGNISES the necessity for methods and assessment tools for the characterisation, testing and validation of advanced materials, and for the integration of circular economy principles and the conducting of comprehensive lifecycle assessments to ensure sustainable production, use, and disposal of advanced materials. (…)”
Currently, however, EU COM does neither call for nor fund corresponding research projects.