European Commission presents draft legislation for chemicals regulation

Nov. 4, 2003
The European Commission on Wednesday presented the final draft proposals for its registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals (REACH) legislation. It had whittled down its initial version under fierce lobbying by industry and the joint intervention of the leaders of France, the UK, and Germany—Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, and Gerhard Schröder—who worried about the "risks of deindustrialization and loss of international competitivity of Europe's industry."

Doris Leblond
OGJ Correspondent

PARIS, Nov. 4 -- The European Commission on Wednesday presented the final draft proposals for its registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals (Reach) legislation. It had whittled down its initial version under fierce lobbying by industry and the joint intervention of the leaders of France, the UK, and Germany—Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, and Gerhard Schröder—who worried about the "risks of deindustrialization and loss of international competitivity of Europe's industry."

Under the draft legislation, the EU's chemical industry must prove that the 30,000 products it produces for market, and has since 1981, do not harm health or the environment. The data collected will be registered with a European chemical products agency to be established. Notoriously dangerous substances, such as carcinogens and very copious or toxic materials, will require Commission authorization and monitoring.

The final version eases the administrative burden, decreases regulations on volumes of 1-10 tonnes of manufactured or imported products, and scraps registration for volumes of less than 1 tonne. It also excludes polymers from the process, leading the EU Commission to cut its estimate of the cost of these procedures to 2.3 billion euros from the initial 12.6 billion euros ($14.9 billion) over a period of 11 years. But it has confirmed that the cost for downstream users would hover around 5.2 billion euros.

However, neither industry nor environmentalists are satisfied with this final version for opposite reasons: Industry doubts the workability of the Reach program, saying the Commission has not carried out an in-depth study of the legislation's economic impact. And environmentalists still consider this final version weak and inadequate.

The European Parliament and the European Union's Council of Ministers will now examine the Reach proposals in the final steps to implement the legislation, leading to further lobbying by supporters and critics. Actual legislation, therefore, is not expected before 2005.