‘MEPs plot to sabotage REACH’

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 07/07/05

CAMPAIGNERS for REACH, the proposed law to regulate chemicals in the EU, have accused pro-industry MEPs of trying to sabotage the proposal by delaying it until after the UK presidency. The UK government has already expressed its interest in pushing REACH through before December.

The internal market committee agreed this week (5 July) to postpone a vote planned for 12 July until 5 September.

Postponing the vote in the internal market committee could have a knock-on effect on the other committee votes and a plenary vote is likely to shift to at least November.

That would give national ministers only a couple of weeks to work on the compromise vote before the final Competitiveness Council of 28 November.

"This is a clear manoeuvre by industry to prevent an agreement under the UK Presidency," said Justin Wilkes, REACH policy officer for the WWF. "After almost two years of discussions in the Council and Parliament and over 40 impact assessments, any further delays could simply kill REACH."

Italian Socialist Guido Sacconi, rapporteur for the lead environment committee also expressed concern. "The most important thing is to get first reading through during the UK presidency, because they have consistently worked very constructively with the Parliament," he said.

Those close to the rapporteur for the internal market committee, German Christian Democrat Hartmut Nassauer, give two reasons for the delay. Following the German parliament's vote of no confidence in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, an election now looks increasingly probable for September and the Germans are reluctant to let European politics influence the vote.

Nassauer's critics say that the election excuse goes deeper than that. If, as expected, Angela Merkel's pro-industry Christian Democrat party wins the election, postponing REACH until the new government is in a position to influence the debate would go in the industry's favour.

The second reason given by Nassauer's office is that the German is keen to strike a compromise with the socialists (PES) in his committee over the thorny issue of risk-based assessment of chemicals.

The PES are supporting a proposal put forward by Malta and Slovenia, which would allow companies producing or importing less than ten tonnes of a substance to provide minimum data on the substance unless it poses a large risk to human health or the environment.

As it stands, companies would have to provide data on all chemicals and a centralised agency would assess the risks and decide if more information should be provided. The socialists are backing the proposal from the two new member states because they feel it would relieve the cost burden on smaller companies.

Nassauer originally proposed a risk-based approach for all chemicals but is now keen to win a majority by integrating his own proposal with that of Malta and Slovenia. Of the 30,000 chemicals covered by REACH, around 17,000 are produced or imported in quantities of less than ten tonnes.

Thomas Jostmann, executive director at European chemical association CEFIC, which has been pushing for risk-based assessment of substances, said that the proposal could be a "starting point".

"It needs further clarification, for example on how lead companies for consortia would work, but it better reflects the industry's position," he said.

But Stefan Scheuer, director of the European Environmental Bureau, criticised the idea.

"If you effectively strip 17,000 chemicals clean out of the system, there will be so little information on chemicals that the whole thing will be a waste of time," he said.

Sacconi said that he was also opposed to risk-based assessment. "I still consider the Commission's proposal to be the best one," he said.

Article reports that campaigners for REACH, the proposed Directive to regulate chemicals in the EU, have accused pro-industry MEPs of trying to sabotage the proposal by delaying it until after the UK Presidency. The UK government had already expressed its interest in adopting REACH before December 2005.

• Primary Source

European Commission: PreLex: COM (2003) 644-1, 'Proposal for a Regulation [...] concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (Reach) [...] http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier.cfm?CL=en&ReqId=0&DocType=COM&DocYear=2003&DocNum=0644

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