MEPs on the European Parliament's Environment Committee (ENVI) expressed broad support on Thursday 15 October for the Sustainable Chemicals Strategy, proposed by the European Commission the day before as a first step towards the goal of 'zero pollution', but have questions about its implementation.
All agreed with the objectives detailed to them by Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius: to better protect citizens' health and the environment from dangerous chemicals, to support innovation and competitiveness of industry and to simplify EU rules to strengthen enforcement and increase efficiency (see EUROPE 12581/6).
Mr Sinkevičius stressed that the proposal was “balanced”, aiming to “prevent rather than cure” by banning the most toxic substances in consumer products while promoting green technologies that allow for innovative alternative solutions, with a pioneering advantage for Europe. MEPs felt that the Commission had finally listened to citizens and had taken account of the resolution adopted by Parliament in July.
While the S&D, Greens/EFA and Renew Europe groups were pleasantly surprised, the Right (EPP) and Conservatives (ECR) expressed fears for the competitiveness of European industry.
“There needs to be a predictable framework, incentives to encourage innovative investments and to involve stakeholders in a dialogue”, stressed Maria Spyraki (EPP, Greece).
In the Commissioner's view, “this strategy is an open invitation to all parties to participate. We are offering an incentive for innovation and access to capital from the 'Next generation EU' Recovery Plan. This is a unique opportunity for companies”.
Pietro Fiocchi (ECR, Italy), for his part, was concerned about the rest of the world not applying the REACH regulation and about the UK not updating its legislation.
Responding to Jytte Guteland (S&D, Sweden), Mr Sinkevičius said that a proposal to take into account the cocktail effects of mixtures of chemicals in the risk assessment would be made in 2022. He also assured her that the principle of 'one substance, one evaluation' would not make the process more cumbersome if there was better coordination between agencies and if they all used the same method.
On the common criteria to be proposed in 2021 to identify endocrine disrupters throughout the legislation, the Commissioner assured Jytte Guteland and Frédérique Ries (Renew Europe, Belgium) that substances suspected of being endocrine disrupters would be included.
Some MEPs, like Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA, Germany), expressed concern that the Commission's Industry Services (DG Grow) might delay implementation of the strategy, which is to be translated into concrete action from 2021 until the end of 2024.
“This is a joint effort by the College to get the balance right. This will only be possible through a joint effort. I am counting on cooperation with the various Commission services”, replied Mr Sinkevičius. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)