On Monday 14 October, the EU environment ministers took stock of the implementation of the EU’s global chemicals strategy. The majority called for an urgent review of the REACH regulation, which needs to be streamlined to promote competitiveness while guaranteeing the health of citizens and the environment. The issue of the dangerousness of PFAS was also discussed at length by the ministers.
The Member States have welcomed the measures presented by the European Commissioner for Climate Action, Wopke Hoekstra: the regulation on the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, the ‘One substance, one assessment’ proposal, the regulation on the digital labelling of EU fertilisers, etc.
All these measures have been taken, but they in no way detract from the “urgency” referred to by several ministers, including Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Romina Pourmokhtari, who deplores the exposure to “potentially carcinogenic products (...) that could be avoided if the REACH regulation were amended”. Like Sweden, the Slovakian Environment Minister, Tomáš Taraba, has called for “an end to PFAS in the EU, except in cases of essential use”.
Eternal pollutants were at the heart of the discussion: “all use of PFAS must be stopped immediately”, insisted the Lithuanian Environment Minister, Laura Masiliauskaité. Belgium and Portugal, for their part, defended the search for alternatives to PFAS.
According to the ministers, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), whose work on eternal pollutants needs to be facilitated, should be better funded and its independence strengthened.
As for the products already banned in the EU, they should not be allowed to be exported, according to France, Spain and Belgium, among others. By proceeding in this way, the EU runs the risk of seeing products that are dangerous to the health of its citizens and its environment returning to its territory. But also because this “double standard” could lead to unfair competition for European industry.
Slovenia’s Minister for the Environment, Bojan Kumer, called for “adequate support” to be provided. Europe’s competitiveness is at stake. To respond, the simplification of the REACH regulation and the establishment of a roadmap have been requested. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)