Plans for a total EU-wide ban on the sale of cosmetics tested on animals are still on track for 2013, the European Commission says. Spokesman Frederic Vincent confirms that the ban is on course for the 2013 deadline, saying the Commission was currently preparing an “impact assessment” on the ban, adding: “So it is really premature to talk about postponement: the deadline is still 2013.”

A ban on the sale of most cosmetics tested on animals came into force in March 2009, with exceptions for products subject to three specific toxicity tests for which no effective non-animal testing methods were available. The cosmetics industry was warned it had four years–until March 2013–until the marketing ban was extended to cover such products too.

Now some cosmetics sectors want more time to find alternative testing methods for the most complicated tests, possibly postponing tougher animal welfare laws until 2018.

“The industry has known for years that this ban was coming. More should have been done to find alternatives to tests on animals,” says RSPCA senior scientific officer Barry Phillips. “If companies can’t make new cosmetics ingredients without causing animal suffering, they will just have to make do with the 10,000 ingredients they already have available to them.”