| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.2, 22.1.04 |
| Publication Date | 22/01/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Karen Carstens Date: 22/01/04 UK MEP Caroline Jackson has hit back at green groups who have attacked her handling of draft EU chemicals legislation in the European Parliament. Infighting over which committee - environment, industry or legal affairs - will take the lead on the proposed REACH system (to register, evaluate and authorize thousands of chemicals), had already stirred controversy. But Jackson, the environment committee chairman, now says the ten new member states should have a full say in the matter. A draft report by Italian Socialist MEP and rapporteur Guido Sacconi on the EU chemicals blueprint is ready for discussion in Parliament. But green activists claim industry has deliberately refused to comment on the report in a stalling tactic designed to prevent a first reading before June's elections. Jackson, they add, has put the report at the bottom of the environment committee's "to do" list and effectively taken it off the agenda. "Postponing the first reading of REACH to the next Parliament would lead to at least a year's delay," the European Environmental Bureau, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and WWF, claimed in a 15 January letter to Jackson. But in reply the MEP says it would be "highly irresponsible" to go ahead with a first reading without the votes of deputies from the accession states. Citing Parliament's Rules 71 and 80, she says: "Any attempt to push through a first reading before the Euro-elections . . . would be highly likely to trigger a demand for a new first reading after the election (Rule 71)." Moreover, she adds, Rule 80 could see the second reading opened up to amendments without normal restrictions. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry |
