Brussels, 03/03/2004 (Agence Europe) - In November 2003, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Loyola de Palacio, had sent a letter to the President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), Roger Briesch, asking the EESC to prepare an exploratory opinion on sustainable development and the strategy to be applied in this field in future. The Prodi Commission is to report on the strategy to the new Commission set up this autumn, said Silvia Calamandrei, Head of Division of the Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment Section (NAT) of the EESC. She recalls that the Lisbon strategy is a short term strategy with a general dimension that consists of incorporating the economic, social and environmental aspects. This exploratory opinion must be given to Commissioner de Palacio for the end of April so that, as Ms de Palacio herself said before the EESC plenary (see EUROPE of 28 February, p.10), the arguments put forward by the Committee may be taken into account in the Commission's scrutiny of this very complex dossier.
In the context of this preparation, the NAT section will examine, on 4 March in Brussels, the draft opinion of Italian entrepreneur Paolo Braghin (who is consultant for Confindustria and Federchimica) on the REACH instrument (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemical substances). The Industry Commissioner Erkki Liikanen will take part at the meeting, instead of his environment colleague, Margot Wallström, who has been held back at the Employment and Social Policy Council. This chemicals dossier is highly controversial and was blocked at the European Parliament in first reading following a series of questions of procedure, Ms Calamandrei recalled. It mainly gave rise to strong reservation on the part of industrialists. The Committee gives a positive sign, reconfirming its support to REACH (support that was already expressed in the White Paper by the Commission) and encourages progress to be made with cost impact assessment and assessments of the advantages - which is more difficult to do - and with the pilot experiences like that conducted in Rhineland North Westphalia with the participation of all interests concerned, Silvia Calamandrei commented. In order to implement the political will to have a legislation which, without hampering industrial competitiveness, covers the whole chain of chemical substance users and the community in general not only from the health point of view but also from the security and environmental impact point of view, Mr Braghin called in his draft opinion on the Commission, Council and EP to seriously envisage all amendments to the draft regulation likely to contribute to simplifying and reducing the bureaucratic burden, and to pursue consultation of parties to this end. The Committee reserves the right to come back with a supplement of opinion on the basis of experience gained over this interim strategy, to which it wishes to be associated, Ms Calamandrei concluded. (Information: silvia.calamandrei@esc.eu.int - Tel.: 02546 9657 in Brussels).