Commission tactics on PVC under fire

Date: 18/04/02

By Laurence Frost

FOUR leading environmental groups have attacked the European Commission for giving privileged access and draft policy documents to PVC industry lobbyists.

In a letter signed last week by Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the organisations claim industry representatives have been given 'direct access' to the draft PVC strategy, while NGOs have been shut out of the policy preparation.

'We are alarmed at this apparent inequality in access to information,' the letter states, arguing that it has undermined the groups' ability to 'counterbalance the selective information and arguments of the PVC industry'.

But a spokeswoman for EU environment chief Margot Wallström denied industry had been given privileged access.

'We've given everybody the same access to the information,' she said, 'everybody has been able to make submissions.'

Release of the draft communication, originally due next week, has been postponed until next month at the earliest as differences persist between the environment and industry commissioners, Margot Wallström and Erkki Liikanen.

The communication will prepare the ground for future EU policy on PVC production.

Companies have offered their own set of joint commitments to reduce the environmental impact of PVC.

These include the phase-out of lead - used to 'stabilise' the plastic - by 2015. The industry has also pledged to recycle 50 of all windows and pipes collected by 2010.

But green groups are dismissive: 'There's no reason to grant PVC companies 15 years just to allow them to use a slightly cheaper kind of stabiliser,' says Jörgo Iwasaki-Riss of Greenpeace.

Four leading environmental groups have attacked the European Commission for giving privileged access and draft policy documents to PVC industry lobbyists.