Under Article 35 of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products1 (the Cosmetics Regulation), each report must include information on:

• -  progress made in the development, validation and acceptance of methods alternative to animal testing;

• -  the Commission’s progress on obtaining the OECD’s2 acceptance of the alternative methods validated at EU level;

• -  progress on third-country recognition of the results of safety tests carried out in the EU using alternative methods;

• -  the specific needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

  This report also informs the European Parliament and the Council of compliance with the deadlines for the animal testing bans set out in Article 18(1) and of related technical difficulties, pursuant to Article 18(2) of the Cosmetics Regulation.