Greens seek alternative compromise on REACH

The European Green Party is asking MEPs to vote for an alternative compromise on EU chemicals legislation REACH, despite announcements that a final deal had been struck on Thursday night (30 November).

Thursday’s deal would make producers submit a ‘substitution plan’ when applying for authorisation of a chemical of high concern. This would include research plans if no safer alternative yet existed. Authorisation would be allowed if no safer alternative could be found and the chemical could be adequately controlled. The deal was hammered out in negotiations, or trilogue, between representatives of the European Commission, Parliament and member states and is expected easily to win backing from a full sitting of MEPs next week.

But it offers too many concessions to the EU chemicals industry, according to the Greens, who were drawing up their own environmentally friendly proposal at the time of going to print. Full details of the alternative compromise will be announced on Monday (11 December) ahead of a Parliament vote in Strasbourg on Thursday (14 December).

Caroline Lucas and Carl Schlyter, the two Green Party shadow rapporteurs for REACH in Parliament, said it was not too late to ‘green’ the new legislation, which would involve the registration of several thousand chemicals.

Lucas and Schlyter said that under the deal chemicals would be approved if the manufacturer promised they would be ‘adequately controlled’, leaving chemicals of high concern in everyday products.

"Once products are in your household they are not under the consumer’s control, not the manufacturer’s," according to Schylter. "There is a very big chance dangerous chemicals will slip through this approval system."

The Green compromise would scrap the ‘adequate control’ option for all hazardous chemicals used in professional and consumer products.

It would also make it compulsory for members of the nascent Chemicals Agency, set up to oversee REACH implementation, to declare their interests.

According to Lucas, allowing agency staff members to remain anonymous would reflect badly on the European institutions: "It is deeply ironic that when the EU is trying to strengthen its transparency and public openness it should be taking this step in exactly the opposite direction."

If MEPs adopt the Green compromise rather than the trialogue deal, REACH will enter lengthy ‘conciliation’ talks. It will also have to be translated into Romanian, Bulgarian and Irish, as the number of official EU languages rises to 23 on 1 January next year.

Lucas said it was "just possible we could get the [367] votes needed for our compromise… a majority of MEPs wanted something better [than the trilogue deal] but weren’t willing to take risks".

But Liberal MEP Chris Davies said the compromise would be "lucky to get more than 50 votes".

"From the day REACH was proposed you could have said with absolute certainty that the Greens would vote against any final deal on the grounds that it was not green enough," added Davies.

"This alternative compromise will only be helpful in convincing the pro-industry lobby, who are worried the trilogue deal has gone too far in an environmental direction."

The European Green Party is asking MEPs to vote for an alternative compromise on EU chemicals legislation REACH, despite announcements that a final deal had been struck on Thursday night (30 November).