The EU Environment Council gave political guidance to the Commission on Wednesday 26 June in Luxembourg to quickly adopt concrete measures and provide the EU with an ambitious and comprehensive strategy to reduce citizens' exposure to hazardous chemical substances, including PFAS and endocrine disrupters.
The conclusions adopted by the Council set out the priorities for an EU strategy for a sustainable chemical substances policy, as discussed by EU ministers.
In particular, the Council asks the Commission to finally present its long-standing strategy for a non-toxic environment, as it undertook to do in the 7th Environmental Action Programme adopted in 2013 (see EUROPE 12074/6 and 11692/2).
It wants the most worrying and dangerous substances to be replaced by greener and more sustainable alternatives. It recommends a common process for monitoring chemical exposure, a European ‘biomonitoring’ programme and the extension of risk assessment to the entire life cycle of products, including their design. The EU Council also wants sufficient and stable long-term funding for the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The EU Council invites the Commission to an action plan on exposure to fluorinated components.
These conclusions, which had been widely agreed in principle before the session, were modified in the margin to add that the Commission presented, on the eve of the ministerial meeting, the “fitness check” of all European chemicals legislation, except for the REACH Regulation, which has already been evaluated.
REACH. The EU Council invites the Commission and ECHA to develop by December 2019 an action plan on file compliance. The EU Council also underlines the importance of improving the authorisation and authorisation restriction procedures for REACH.
Medicines. The EU Council underlines the importance of accelerating concrete and ambitious measures to reduce the risks associated with pharmaceuticals and their residues in the environment.
Nanomaterials. The EU Council requests that the Commission extend the mandate of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to the collection and availability of research data on the characterisation, hazard and potential exposure to nanoforms of substances that have not yet been registered under REACH because their annual tonnage is below the 1 tonne/year threshold and to regularly request ECHA to assess the performance and impact of the European Nanomaterial Observatory launched in 2017.
Endocrine disruptors. The EU Council urges the Commission to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment by minimising exposure to endocrine disrupters and encouraging substitution with safer chemicals, where technically and practically possible, and to present without delay an action plan with clear and concrete measures and an ambitious timetable. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)