Brussels, 22/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - The five-year examination of the REACH regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemical substances was the subject of broad consensus at the Environment Council in Brussels on Thursday 21 March.
During the exchange of views, EU27 environment ministers endorsed the five-year report presented by the European Commission on 5 February this year and hailed its intention to establish a roadmap to identify and include by 2020 all extremely worrying substances in the list of substances applying for registration.
Denmark suggested creating a “goodwill coalition” in order to speed up the process which is at a virtual standstill (to date only 138 substances have been identified). Most delegations supported the Commission's intention to amend the appendices of the regulation and to create registers for nano-materials. Addressing reporters, Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said he was delighted with the consensus, saying that REACH works well but that there is still room for improvement regarding the quality of registration. He said they must focus on SMEs. (AN/transl.jl)