The groups have formed the European Partnership for Alternative Approaches to Animal Testing (EPAA), and committed to a five-year plan to reduce animal testing in product-safety checks.
The move comes as industry and national governments prepare for the controversial 2009 EU ban on the testing of cosmetics products on animals. The ban was agreed upon in 2002 following 13 years of discussion. The practice is already illegal in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.
The plan, which also sets standards for cosmetic makers who want to use the label “not tested on animals”, has been deemed a step in the right direction by animal rights protestors but they are calling for an immediate ban.
Global heavyweights Johnson and Johnson and L'Oreal are among the companies that have already signed on.
The commission claims to have validated 23 alternative non-animal testing methods so far and around 30 others are now being evaluated.
“The European partnership is an important contribution to find alternatives to animal testing. We are now moving from words to deeds,” said EU industry commissioner Gunther Verheugen in a statement.