Brussels, 18/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Under fire from all sides over its delay on endocrine disruptors, the European Commission published its roadmap on Tuesday 17 June on defining the criteria for the identification of these chemicals in the framework of European regulations on the sales of biocides (Regulation 528/2012/EU) and pesticides (Regulation 1107/2009). And once again it was disappointment for the Greens and the NGOs. Although the Commission was supposed to establish these criteria by 31 December 2013, it has gone no further than to list options and is considering including risk-assessment and socio-economic elements in the decision-making, including a cost-benefit analysis which could weaken the scope of these criteria.
Last month, Sweden announced that it planned to bring legal action against the Commission over its failure to act on this dossier (see EUROPE 11088). On 12 June, the pressure was cranked up a notch when France, supported by Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Austria and Poland, called for the work to be speeded up. “The Commission only understands power dynamics. Before then, the internal disagreements had induced the Commission shamelessly to stick to its impassioned defence of the globalised chemical industry to the detriment of that which should always take priority: the health of our citizens, including unborn ones”, said French MEP Michèle Rivasi. She added: “There should be no agreement on the trans-Atlantic Treaty (TTIP) until these criteria enter into force”.
She criticised the fact that one of the options listed by the Commission is to take the dose as a criterion, even though, “for the hormone system, it is not the dose which is poisonous, but the period of exposure”. She therefore calls on the forthcoming Italian Presidency of the Council to put strict legislation on endocrine disruptors at the top of its list of priorities under the “principle of prevention”.
A roadmap “to nowhere”, NGOs lament. PAN Europe (Pesticide Action Network Europe) argues that the roadmap conceals the threat of a complete reversal of the hazard-based approach approved by the Council and the Parliament, which should lead to endocrine disruptors being banned. The NGO deplores the fact that two of the three options presented will add risk-assessment and socio-economic elements in the decision-making to regulate the substances, which it feels “waters down the effectiveness of these regulations to protect human health and the environment”. The industry is in favour of a risk assessment-based approach, because it takes the view that exposure to low doses of a substance can represent a low risk, and therefore be seen as harmless. “But this is not the case for endocrine disruptors, where smaller doses may be even more potent, especially (…) in embryos and newborn babies”, PAN Europe stresses. Readers may recall that the Commission requested EFSA's opinion on the risk assessment for endocrine disruptors and that, in March 2013, the authority recommended that specific scientific criteria be agreed upon to establish a distinction between active substance and endocrine disruptor (see EUROPE 10811). The roadmap can be accessed online at: http://ec.europa.eu/smart_regulation/impact/planned_ia/docs/2014_env_009_endocrine_disruptors_en.pdf (AN)