MEPs adopted the European Parliament’s position on the ‘one substance, one assessment’ legislative package aimed at simplifying EU rules on chemicals and making them more transparent, in a plenary session vote on Tuesday 1 April.
“Today’s vote is a major step forward in improving the collection of data on chemicals and the assessment of their safety. These three texts will ensure faster, simpler and more transparent regulatory action”, said rapporteur Dimitris Tsiodras (EPP, Greek).
The creation of a common data platform will provide a “one-stop shop” for information on chemical substances listed in European legislation (hazards, presence in the environment, emissions, etc.) (see EUROPE 13582/4).
The other two texts focus on restructuring the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and improving cooperation between the following European agencies: the ECHA, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The platform should help to better estimate the exposure of European citizens to chemical substances “by systematically collecting data on the levels of these substances in the human body (for example, in blood or breast milk)”, explains the European Parliament.
The guiding principle, according to Christophe Clergeau (S&D, French), is to consolidate European data on all chemical products and pollution in order to have “a more exhaustive view of environmental data” in Europe and to enable “comprehensive monitoring of the state of health of the various populations in Europe on the different indicators”.
“There has been a very strong offensive by industry to prevent a certain amount of data being included in the database”, explained Mr Clergeau. But the data on the substances present in the products will only remain confidential during the authorisation or assessment procedure, before becoming public “when this procedure is completed”, he added.
The European Parliament has also added to the Commission’s proposal the possibility for whistleblowers, community networks and NGOs to register their data in their database (see EUROPE 13542/9), which should improve the detection of emerging chemical risks. The MEPs felt that this was a necessity.
The European Parliament also wants to give ECHA the possibility of “commissioning studies to supplement the data submitted by industry”, Mr Clergeau noted.
Parliament will now have to begin negotiations with the Council of the EU. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)