Industry wins concessions in proposed EU chemical regulations

May 19, 2003
Fierce lobbying helped water down a 2-year-old white paper proposal of European Union policy on the manufacture and importation of industrial chemicals into more "workable and manageable" draft legislation last week.

By an OGJ correspondent

PARIS, May 19 -- Fierce lobbying helped water down a 2-year-old white paper proposal of European Union policy on the manufacture and importation of industrial chemicals into more "workable and manageable" draft legislation last week that protects health and environmental safety without sacrificing the industry's ability to compete, proponents said.

Industry officials said they support the safety aims of the proposed legislation. But studies commissioned by trade groups in both Germany and France indicated that the costs of implementing the new legislation through 2020 far exceed earlier estimates by the EU environment commission, in terms of required investment, unemployment, reduced gross national product, and reduced competition.

The French study indicated that the proposed EU system for registering, evaluating, and authorizing some 30,000 chemical products would cost 29-54 billion euros over 10 years. Consultants who conducted that study said European chemical production could drop by 10.5% as businesses relocated or went under. The result, they said, could be a domino effect along the entire chemical production chain, resulting in the loss of 360,000-670,000 jobs and reducing industrial investment by 47-88 million euros.

The UK's Chemical Industries Association backed the French study, saying it confirmed a similar German study published late last year.

The May 7 draft legislation requires chemicals manufactured or imported in quantities exceeding 1 ton/year to be registered. However, companies handling only small volumes of chemicals have up to 11 years to do registration. In addition, chemicals used for research are exempted from registration, while more than 50% of polymers and some 70,000 intermediates will be either out of the system altogether or require only basic registration with no additional testing.

Authorization will be required only for substances of "very high concern." A new chemicals agency will be formed to administer the program.

The European Chemical Industry Council remains worried about costs and the practicality of the new legislation. It estimates direct costs of 4 billion euros to implement the program, with a total cost of 24 billion euros to European manufacturers over 20 years.

The EU environment commission plans to establish an Internet website for an 8-week comment period on the 1200-page draft legislation.