Dimas: REACH is manageable

By Karen Carstens

Date: 28/04/05

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told a European Voice conference this week that the costs of the REACH proposals on chemicals were manageable and could be passed on to customers.

"It is likely that there will be very limited withdrawal of substances due to the cost of registration and that the chemicals industry will be able to pass down costs of registration to downstream users," said Dimas.

The commissioner said that the 'cost and impact' case-studies back up the Commission's original 2003 estimate of €2.3 billion in costs incurred by the chemicals industry - with total costs to the economy estimated at €2.8-5.6bn over 11 years.

But Horst Rehberger, economy and labour minister for the eastern German Land of Saxony-Anhalt and president of the European Chemicals Regions Network (ECRN), warned that small- and medium-sized enterprises would be hard hit by REACH.

Lotta Malfrere, a legal adviser to IKEA, the Swedish furniture giant, said big retailers stood to benefit from REACH and help European manufacturers in the process.

"REACH will make it easier for us to buy products produced inside the EU," she said, as opposed to products made in China, India and other countries where many of the materials for IKEA's products are presently sourced.

Charles Laroche of Unilever said REACH should provide the impetus to "a new generation of ecolabel". He said the new European Chemicals Agency should incorporate a department devoted to communicating risk to consumers. REACH should require a user information system to ensure consistent and high-quality communication to consumers. He said there should be a standardised labelling system based on risk.

Swedish MEP Lena Ek, rapporteur for REACH for the industry, research and energy committee, said that the 'one substance, one registration' initiative was a good idea, but would pose practical problems.

Report from the one-Day Conference 'Within Reach. Communicating and implementing the new EU chemicals policy', 26 April 2005, hosted by the European Voice.