Cooperation at international level

Bilateral cooperation

Concerning the U.S., the Commission is in close contact with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In order to further enhance cooperation, both parties signed, on 2 July 2007, a confidentiality arrangement (see press release).

Concerning China, the Commission is in regular contact with the most relevant ministries, in particular the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). The European Commission concluded a cooperation framework with AQSIQ on 18 September 2006 and with SFDA on 23 October 2007.

Multilateral cooperation

A regulatory dialogue called "International Cooperation on Cosmetic Regulation" (ICCR) has been set between the Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America, Health Canada, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan and the European Commission, DG Health and Consumers.

The fifth meeting of the ICCR was held on June 28-July 1, 2011 in Paris, France. See the text of the agreed outcome .
At the ICCR-5 meeting, the Regulators agreed to publish the following documents:
- A Report on the 2011 Associations Survey of Nanomaterials Used in Cosmetic Products
- A Report of the Joint Regulator - Industry Ad Hoc Working Group on Characterization of Nanomaterials on Currently Available Methods for Characterization of Nanomaterials
- A Report on Principles of Cosmetic Product Safety Assessment
- A Report on Principles for the Handling of Traces of impurities and/or Contaminants in Cosmetic Products
The fourth meeting was held on July 13-15, 2010 in Toronto, Canada. See the text of the agreed outcome . At the ICCR-4 meeting, the Regulators agreed to publish the Report on the ICCR Joint Ad Hoc Working Group on Nanotechnology in COsmetic Products: Criteria and Methods of Detection
The third meeting was held on September 9-11, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. See the text of the agreed outcome [30 KB] .
The second meeting was held on 30 July-1 August 2008 in Rockville, US. See the text of the agreed outcome [25 KB] and the Framework for International Cooperation on Alternative Test Methods (ICATM [29 KB] ).
The first meeting was held on 26-28 September 2007 in Brussels, Belgium. See the text of the agreed outcome [13 KB] .

In parallel to the ICCR activities, on 8-9 July 2009 where held the "International Workshop on Regulatory Issues regarding the Use of Nanotechnologies in Cosmetics". You can find here more information about the outcome [62 KB].

The Commission is also the EU contact point for notifications under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. The Agreement provides for a notification procedure which requires all Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to inform other Members, through the WTO Secretariat, of their proposed technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures. This procedure is a formidable instrument of transparency allowing all parties to the Agreement and economic operators to become acquainted with the technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures envisaged by other parties before these are adopted. You find more information on the Technical Barriers to Trade webpage.

For an overview on the different regulatory systems for cosmetic products please refer to the Comparative study on cosmetic legislation in EU and other principal markets.