ECEAE welcomes new EU law strengthening the Chemicals Agency
- News
On 30 June 2026 the Council of the European Union announced that they had reached agreement with the European Parliament on the new legislation governing the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), called the ECHA basic regulation.
ECHA is the EU’s agency that regulates the safety of chemicals. Under the main EU chemicals law, called REACH, it reviews chemicals on the market and can require companies to do new animal tests if more safety data is needed. ECHA now also works on other types of substances, such as disinfectants, pest‑control products and cosmetics. The new law creates a separate set of rules just for ECHA, explaining how the agency is organised and financed.
We are delighted that the new law clearly recognises ECHA’s role in promoting non‑animal approaches – methods to test chemicals without using live animals – and in reducing animal testing for chemical safety.
The law also makes clear that ECHA should support EU countries and the European Commission, and work with other EU bodies – including EURL ECVAM, the EU reference laboratory for alternatives to animal testing – to develop and promote non‑animal approaches.
It also adds ‘expertise in non-animal approaches’ to the criteria for the three interested parties that are regularly appointed to the Management Board which oversees the activities of the agency.
We are particularly pleased to see the regulation consistently refer throughout to ‘non-animal approaches’ as well as the recognition that the agency has a role to play in the phase-out of animal testing for chemical safety assessment. This brings the agency’s role in line with the Commission’s Roadmap towards phasing out animal testing for chemical safety assessment.
By giving ECHA a stronger role on non‑animal approaches, the new law can help protect people and the environment. It encourages modern scientific methods that better reflect how the human body works and can predict chemical risks more reliably than animal tests.