Brussels, 16/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - Following an investigation led by a Democrat in the House of Representatives, Henry A. Waxman (Los Angeles) and the Environmental Health Fund (an NGO), the United States House of Representatives published a report on 1 April (the Waxman Report) outlining attempts by the Bush Administration to prevent the EU adopting the REACH regulation on the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals, proposed by the European Commission> These attempts include long telegrams from the Secretary of State Colin Powell to US embassies, send in March 2002 and April 2003, coordinating a campaign of pressure on EU states; contact with governments of third countries like Australia, China and Indonesia and with business circles in Japan, Malaysia, Mexico and elsewhere; a strategy aiming to split EU countries by focussing on contact with specific Member States like France, Germany and the UK which might block the planned chemicals legislation.
The European Commission's spokesperson in Washington, Anthony Gooch, confirmed these 'correct and serious' facts in a press release issued on 5 April, commented Laurent Vogel, from the European Trade Union Technical Bureau (TUTB, a section of the European Trade Union Confederation that specialised in health and safety at work). The ETUC has expressed concern about pressure being applied to prevent the adoption of REACH and this pressure is not only being applied by the United States, explained Vogel, mentioning the letter signed by Chirac, Schroder and Blair with the same aim. Vogel highlighted, however, a contradiction whereby President Chirac has put fighting cancer as a priority for public health, but Vogel explains that if REACH is watered down, the battle against cancer will be lost. He added that in Europe today, most deaths and a large proportion of illnesses caused by conditions are work are due to exposure to dangerous chemicals, and REACH aims to fill gaps in current legislation in this connection. The new European Parliament and the new European Commission will have to work on the final text, commented Laurent Vogel.
The Commission's spokesperson announced that Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom will be in the United States from 26 to 28 April, where one of her tasks will be to argue the case for the REACH programme. (See Europe of 15 April, p.16, for the ETUC's position.).