21/01/2005 (Agence Europe) - Guido Sacconi (PES, Italy), rapporteur for the European Parliament's Environment Committee on the REACH chemicals package, has welcomed the fact that the European Commission confirmed at the hearing at the European Parliament on Wednesday that it would be going ahead with the new directive (see Europe of 20 January, p.12, on the hearing itself and 19 January, p.10 on statements made by CDU MEP Hartmut Nassauer, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee rapporteur). In a press release, Sacconi says that even before the Commission's draft legislation was even published in October 2003, the European Parliament had condemned the political war of attrition on chemicals, including psychological warfare on the possible damage REACH would have on European competitiveness.