Brussels, 03/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is committed to presenting criteria to define endocrine disruptors “before the summer”, said Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis on Tuesday 2 February. He was responding to a Parliamentary question from the S&D, ALDE, Greens-EFA, GUE-NGL and EFDD Groups on the recent General Court ruling that went against the Commission (case T-521/14).
Endocrine disruptors are chemicals which interfere with the body's hormonal system, leading to harmful effects on health, and can also cause environmental damage. Under the terms of the regulations currently in force on the marketing of biocidal products (Regulation EU 528/2012) and plant health products (EC 1107/2009), the Commission should have adopted delegated acts specifying scientific criteria for the determination of endocrine-disrupting properties by 13 December 2013. The Commission, however, failed to meet this deadline, arguing the need for an impact assessment of the costs and socio-economic benefits of the various possible options for these criteria, including options amending sectoral legislation. This approach failed to persuade the General Court: in a ruling on 16 December 2015, the Court started that the legislation made no provision for any such impact assessment and that taking that initiative in no way allowed the Commission not to comply with the date set for adopting the delegated acts (see EUROPE 11455).
In the face of the MEPs' anger, the Commission acknowledged that it was behind on the timetable set in the European regulations. This is a “highly controversial issue” and the Commission is carrying out “ground-breaking work”, said Andriukaitis in the institution's defence. “The World Health Organisation (WHO) definition is not sufficient. The impact assessment is useful, perhaps even crucial, as a guide for future action”, he said. “We are aware that the date set by European regulation has passed. That is why I promise you that we will publish the criteria, based on scientific evidence, before summer 2016. This is progress since, only a short time ago, there was talk of the end of the year”, the commissioner replied before infuriatedly rejecting accusations from MEPs of collusion with industry. Proposals are expected to be based on two documents: an implementing act relating to the criteria for chemicals under the regulation on health products, and a delegated act relating to the criteria for products under the biocides regulation. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)