Chemicals in the environment and public health are not good bedfellows. It is high time the European Commission tackled this problem in line with the commitments taken in the 7th Environment Action Programme (EAP), adopted in 2013, and to present the initiatives expected.
Such was the message sent by the environment ministers of nine EU member states (Germany, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Slovakia) and Norway to the Commission on 27 July, urging it in particular, by the end of its mandate, to finally present the EU strategy for a non-toxic environment. A letter along these lines was sent to First Vice-President of the Commission Frans Timmermans, Vice-President, Jirki Katainen, and Commissioners Karmenu Vella, Elzbieta Bienkowska and Vytenis Andriukaitis.
The signatories point out that safeguarding the health and well-being of citizens, including by strengthening EU chemicals policy, is one of the three pillars of the 7th EAP.
“In this regard, we are seriously concerned about the potential delay of several initiatives that are foreseen to advance EU chemical policy and that are also necessary to achieve a circular economy”, the ministers write. In particular, they go on to cite the following initiatives:
- The strategic approach to pharmaceuticals in the environment.
- The strategy on a non-toxic environment (announced for 2018) including the horizontal measures announced in the EAP for 2015 to ensure: the safety of manufactured nanomaterials and materials with similar properties; the minimisation of exposure to endocrine disruptors; appropriate regulatory approaches to address combination effects of chemicals; and the minimisation of exposure to chemicals in products, including, inter alia, imported products, with a view to promoting non-toxic material cycles and reducing indoor exposure to harmful substances.
- The integrated product policy framework announced for 2018, and called for by the Environment Council (see EUROPE 12048).
- The strategy on endocrine disruptors to minimise exposure of EU citizens to endocrine disruptors.
A public consultation has now been launched by the Commission on the interface between legislation on chemical substances, products and waste relating to the traceability of worrying substances in products, the traceability in recycled materials and the difficulties encountered in application of methods for classifying waste from the EU (see EUROPE 12069).
In 2016, the EU Environment Council had already pointed to the Commission’s delay in its work on health and the good management of chemicals (see EUROPE 11692).
Sweden, a country at the forefront, is investing in forming an alliance of the most ambitious countries to promote, at global level, an agreement on the safe management of chemicals and waste – an agreement protecting human health – as part of the international initiative known as The Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) (see EUROPE 12050).
At the European Parliament, in February this year, during a debate with Jyrki Katainen on the circular economy, Pavel Poc (S&D, Czech Republic), who is a member of the special PEST committee of the European Parliament responsible for shedding light on the procedure for authorising pesticides within the EU, had underlined that an essential condition to be met to carry out successful transition to the circular economy was to enter the EU action plan in a strategy for a non-toxic environment (see EUROPE 11966). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)