Brussels, 29/04/2005 (Agence Europe) -Supporting German Christian Democrat Hartmut Nassauer, the rapporteur for the committee on the internal market on the REACH legislation on chemicals, the EPP-ED group of the European Parliament adopted a common position before first reading at the plenary (it is worth noting that the rapporteur for the committee on the environment is Guido Sacconi, Democratici di sinistra member: see EUROPE 8938 on the new REACH sectorial studies on the impact of the legislation on industry). According to a press release, the group is proposing to add a risk criterion to the Commission's proposal, which “bases the evaluation of chemical products on the criterion of volume”. The objective, Mr Nassauer explains, is to seek “the most direct, efficient, fastest and cheapest more of registration [for chemical products] on the basis of their potential risk”. If we want first reading in plenary in the autumn, the competent parliamentary committees will have to conclude their votes by the summer, he warned. We want to bring in a system which both guarantees protection of the environment and consumers and allows us to reduce administrative procedures and costs to a bare minimum, Mr Nassauer emphasised, raising the issue of fair competition, noting that the REACH legislation will only be applied to European industries.
According to the EPP-ED group, in particular: -in order to create a register of chemicals without excessive delay, the “pre-selection” of some 30,000 substances to be registered should be considered, and a minimum number of data be defined for these substances, “to be used as a basis for an initial risk-related assessment”; - this register should be used as the basis to draw up priority lists depending on the criteria of the risk and the volume; in this way, the more dangerous a substance is judged to be after an initial evaluation, the faster a more detailed assessment will be called for and more parameters will be taken into consideration; the agency in charge of registration must be bolstered “significantly”, be legally responsible for the registration and have the final word in the evaluation process; -the legislation must be compatible with WTO norms; -REACH must guarantee data protection, including confidential company information, whilst guaranteeing the transparency of the information given to consumers; -the position of the European Parliament must be guaranteed in a revision clause.