EU Parliamentarians strongly divided over chemical regulation

Chemicals are everywhere in today’s society, ranging from the food we eat to the clothes we wear and the European Commission actively proposes regulation in this field. However, the final decisions by the European institutions are also based on political considerations, in addition to the technical assessments. The European Parliament plays a big role on regulation of chemicals as it can allow or block the authorisation of these products. The EP is made up of over 200 parties with very different agendas and views, which makes it very difficult to follow its work and forecast its decisions.

In order to guide stakeholders through the decision-making process in this area, VoteWatch Europee tracked the positions of all the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on key votes that decided the fate of chemical products.

This mapping also offered important clues about the position of the 28 EU governments, as in most cases there is coordination between the government and the position of the MEPs coming from the parties in power at national level.