| Author (Person) | McLauchlin, Anna |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.11, No.16, 28.4.05 |
| Publication Date | 28/04/2005 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Anna McLauchlin Date: 28/04/05 AN internal row has once again hit the European Commission over its proposal for regulation of chemicals. A high level group met yesterday (27 April) to discuss the findings of two impact assessments intended to further the REACH debate, which is the subject of fierce dispute between environmentalists and the chemical industry. But in the run up to the meeting, the Commission's environment and industry departments (DG Environment and DG Enterprise) were at loggerheads over whether to publish the findings of one of the studies, carried out by the EU executive's Joint Research Centre (JRC). At issue is the validity of a study into the impact of REACH legislation on companies in the new member states. DG Environment has accused DG Enterprise of coming up with excuses to delay publication of the report, after DG Enterprise sided with demands from the chemicals industry that the study be validated by independent experts. As a consequence, the JRC's conclusions were not made available yesterday to Commissioners and MEPs in charge of drafting the Parliament's view. The chemicals industry organisation Cefic had already been put on the defensive by the KPMG report which it funded with the European employers' organisation UNICE, and which, as European Voice reported on 7 April, concluded that REACH would not have such dire economic consequences as feared. That study was presented yesterday to the high level group. In a working group meeting on 13 April, the chemical industry reacted strongly to the JRC conclusions, seen by European Voice, which found that the legislation would have "very limited impacts" on chemical manufacturers in Poland, the Czech Republic and Estonia. For formulators - companies that mix chemicals to make certain preparations - the case studies "did not show significant impacts" on their competitiveness and the price increase for downstream users, such as retailers, "was not found to be significant". The study did find, however, that importers of chemicals in the new member states might face "difficulties" if they imported chemicals from outside the EU, particularly Russia, as they are around 35% cheaper than EU-produced substances. Industry representatives and DG Enterprise argued that independent consultants, appointed by the Commission, should validate the JRC's report in the same way as the KPMG report before the results could be published. "It's an important study, but one which unfortunately has not been subject to the necessary validation and verification processes so it would be premature to discuss the findings," said Thomas Jostmann from Cefic. But sources close to the negotiations say that validation for the JRC report was never discussed during previous meetings. Stefan Scheuer, director of the European Environmental Bureau, said: "The validation argument has been clearly misused by DG Enterprise to block unfavourable results coming out now," he said. "We would call that censorship." A senior source at DG Enterprise denied that the Commission was bowing to industry pressure. "That has nothing to do with it," he insisted. He said that the JRC had agreed to validate its study and that the results would be presented at a working group meeting to be held by the Luxembourg presidency between the high level group and member states on 10 May. An official at the JRC would not comment on the row or say whether the JRC supported its findings. "We are a research institute and that is what we do," he said, adding that it was "doubtful" that the validation process would be achieved by the 10 May. Article reports on a dispute between the European Commission's Directorate-General for Environment and the DG Enterprise on the publishing of a Commission-sponsored report which had found that the negative impact of the proposed chemicals Directive REACH on the chemical industry was far smaller than feared. The report was presented to the EU's High level group on further work on the impact assessment of REACH on 27 April 2005. |
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| Source Link | Link to Main Source http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
