The European Parliament’s rapporteurs on the revision of the directive on occupational exposure to asbestos have reached agreement on the main points of the report by French MEP Véronique Trillet-Lenoir (Renew Europe), several sources told EUROPE on Thursday 30 March.
The main points of concern were the limit value chosen, the transition period for adapting to this value and the switch to a more modern fibre detection technology (see EUROPE 13132/20).
While the MEP had taken up the Commission's value of 0.01 fibres/cm³ and proposed a transitional period of 3 years to use what is known as electron microscopy technology (ideally for transmission), the other political groups in the European Parliament wanted to have this limit value set at 0.001 fibres/cm³ from the outset, but retaining the possibility of applying the value of 0.01 fibres/cm³ during a transitional period of 4 years, by means of phase-contrast technology, which is still commonly used at present.
After 4 years, however (including the 2 years of transposition of the directive), it would become mandatory to move to an exposure limit value of 0.001 fibres/cm³ and to use modern detection technology. During the discussion of the French report, most political groups (EPP, S&D, Greens/EFA, The Left) had wanted to move closer to the 0.001 fibre/cm³ limit value advocated in 2021 by Danish rapporteur Nikolaj Villumsen (The Left) in a flagship own-initiative report.
The Danish MEP said that he was “generally satisfied with the compromise we have reached. This is a very good basis for our negotiations with the EU Council”, he told EUROPE, although he would have “preferred not to have an additional transition period for certain issues on top of the normal two-year transposition period”.
The vote in the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee has in any case been slightly postponed from 13 to 17 April, which could delay the entry into the trilogue. The European Parliament teams are reportedly preparing a solution so that the vote in committee is also recognised immediately in plenary.
When contacted by EUROPE, the rapporteur’s office did not respond to our requests and therefore did not confirm this agreement.
The Council of the EU has already adopted its mandate by taking over the Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 13072/4) almost unchanged. The Swedish Presidency would like to conclude this dossier before July. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)