Parliament negotiators and the Romanian Presidency of the Council reached a provisional agreement on Tuesday evening, 19 February, on the recast of the 2004 Regulation on persistent organic pollutants, chemical substances that are extremely harmful to human health and the environment.
The objective of the recast is to align this Regulation with the latest amendments to the Stockholm Convention and to transfer certain tasks to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
Under the agreement, bis(pentabromophenyl) ether or "decaBDE" - a flame retardant used in plastic and textile articles, in particular - is added to the list of substances for which a maximum concentration limit value is set in other substances, mixtures and articles and subject to strict waste management provisions.
The unintentional trace contaminant value is set at 10 mg / kg for cases where this flame retardant is present in substances. In addition the unintentional trace contaminant value is set at 500 mg/kg for the sum of all BDEs, including decaBDE, where they are present in mixtures and articles. The Commission will assess all health and environmental impacts of PBDEs two years after the entry into force of the Regulation.
Specific exemptions concerning the use of decaBDE are introduced for civil or military aircrafts, motor vehicles and electrical and electronic equipment, also in case of imports. It should be recalled that decaBDE is already subject to restrictions under the REACH Regulation as a substance of very high concern.
The agreement also provides that the limit values will be maintained in Annex IV of the Regulation and that amendments to Annexes IV and V will be made by the ordinary legislative procedure and not by Comitology (the Council initially wanted the limits to be removed in the Annexes and the values to be adopted by implementing acts, while the Commission and European Parliament advocated setting the limits in the Annex and delegated acts for any amendments).
Parliament’s Environment Committee was informed on Wednesday of this result. The ambassadors of the Twenty-Eight EU Member States (Coreper) are expected to endorse the agreement on Friday 22 February, the Environment Committee on Wednesday 27 February and Parliament in April. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)