The European Commission's future strategy on 'Chemicals for Sustainability', prepared by the institution's Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), is likely to come in for serious criticism from the Commission's Directorate-General for Health (DG HEALTH), as revealed in internal Commission documents viewed by EUROPE on Thursday 1 October.
These criticisms relate in particular to the way in which risks to human health and the environment from chemicals are controlled.
At present, risk management measures are taken on the basis of the classification of identified hazards ('generic risk assessment' or GRA), which allows for the prohibition of chemical substances through a simplified assessment, or on the basis of a 'specific risk assessment' or SRA.
In most cases, EU chemicals legislation uses a combination of these two approaches.
Nevertheless, according to a draft version of the future chemicals strategy, leaked to the press in July (see EUROPE 12537/20), DG ENV plans to extend the GRA method to all European legislation and to broaden its scope to include neurotoxic substances, allergens and endocrine disrupters. A proposal that does not please DG HEALTH.
However, according to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the GRA method involves much quicker checks (2 years maximum compared to 8 years on average for the SRA assessment) and thus allows less time to be lost before restricting or banning chemicals.
EEB explains this by the fact that this approach aims to control the most harmful substances that require a quick response.
The NGO fears that DG HEALTH's criticisms will weaken the strategy envisaged by DG ENV and delay its presentation (scheduled for 14 October), as the two Directorates-General have to agree on a common position.
“It is a mystery why health officials are fighting rather than welcoming this golden opportunity to reduce chronic and widespread illnesses linked to daily exposure to toxic chemicals”, said Tatiana Santos, Head of Chemicals Policy at the EEB.
According to our information, a final round of negotiations on the strategy was due to take place today (Thursday) between the Commissioners for Health and the Environment, Stella Kyriakides and Virginijus Sinkevičius.
On Wednesday, nine Member States sent an open letter to the Commission calling on it to present an “ambitious” strategy for chemicals (see separate news).
The internal Commission documents we were able to consult were actually sent to DG ENVI after 31 July. Consequently, DG HEALTH's position may have changed since then. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)