Memo: Impact Assessment of the Chemicals proposal

The overall costs of the proposal on chemicals, currently in preparation, will be substantially reduced compared to earlier estimates. The draft proposal which was posted for Internet consultation earlier this year has been thoroughly revised to cut costs and minimise bureaucracy whilst safeguarding human health and the environment. In the new Impact Assessment the direct costs of REACH to the chemicals industry are estimated at a total of some €2.3 billion over an 11 year period. This is a reduction of over €10 billion compared to the Internet text. This reduction is due to changes such as reduced testing requirements and simplified registration procedures for low volume chemicals, exclusion of polymers from registration, and a major reduction in downstream user requirements.