The European Parliament and the Council of the EU finally reached a provisional political agreement at the end of the fourth inter-institutional meeting (trilogue) on the fourth revision of the Directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work, after almost 7 hours of negotiations during the night of Wednesday 15 December and Thursday morning 16 December.
“Congratulations to the Slovenian Presidency and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs for reaching a deal on the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD4). This is an important step towards a higher protection of around 1 million workers from dangerous chemical substances”, welcomed the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, on his Twitter account.
According to our information, the European Parliament has won a long-standing demand, namely the inclusion of reprotoxic substances in the scope of the Directive with a distinction between substances for which limit values are already set and those for which no limit value is yet set. This is an important concession by the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council, which had effectively obtained some flexibility from the Member States (see EUROPE 12687/12).
It was agreed that the European Commission, after consulting the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work (ASCH), should present an action plan to cover 25 additional substances by 31 December 2022 and, where appropriate, make legislative proposals. This is also an important demand of the European Parliament.
On the risk-based approach called for by the European Parliament, the co-legislators agreed that the Commission will present guidelines on the subject no later than 1 year after the ASCH has delivered its opinion on the matter. At present, such an approach for mutagenic or carcinogenic substances is applied by only two Member States.
On the other hand, as at the last trilogue (see EUROPE 12852/18), the EU Council did not wish to extend the scope of the Directive to Hazardous Medicinal Products (HMPs) on the grounds that certain medicinal products are irreplaceable in the treatment of certain cancers.
However, the co-legislators agreed that the Commission should come back with a definition and an indicative list of dangerous medicines at work at the latest 1 year after the transposition of the directive. It should also come back with guidelines and standards for the use of these dangerous medicines.
The Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council is expected to report on the trilogue in the Committee of Permanent Representatives I (Coreper I) on Friday 17 December. A new discussion on the agreement is scheduled for Wednesday 22 December, a source told us.
To access the four-column table: https://bit.ly/3dUDHIq (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)