Strasbourg, 27/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption of the report by Danish Socialist Torben Lund on endocrine disrupters, the European Parliament gives its support to the European Commission's strategy aimed at establishing by end 2000 a list of substances that are in effect or suspected of being endocrine disrupters. The EP considers that the Commission must ensure the necessary resources are available so that the 560 substances identified are included on the list and that all these substances are carefully examined and classified. The Commission must identify, without awaiting more detailed tests, the substances which, in compliance with the precautionary principle, must be the subject, according to the case, of limited use, progressive elimination or immediate ban. The Parliament considers that these decisions should be taken before the mid 2001. A future legal framework for chemical products should comprise specific legislation on endocrine disrupters, on the basis of the precautionary principle and on displacement of the burden of proof (this last element was approved with 245 in favour, 162 against and 17 abstentions). During marketing of the product, the manufacturer should at least give proof of "reasonable certainty of harmlessness", states the Parliament, which also considers that the future legal framework should foresee a mechanism obliging existing chemicals manufacturers to test their substances compared to the norms applied to new chemical substances and a timetable to this effect.