Strasbourg, 13/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - REACH's fate has been decided. The draft regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals in the EU is currently being adopted to enter into force in 2007. After three years of bitter negotiations, the European Parliament on 13 December in Strasbourg gave its green light in a second reading for this novel legislation, which was proposed in October 2003. REACH will make producers responsible for proving the innocuousness of their products. It will also, over an eleven year period (up to 2018), seek to make good the information deficit on the properties in around 30,000 chemical substances that are already on the market. These are produced or imported in excess of 1 tonne a year but at the moment we know practically nothing about the dangers they present to public health and the environment. These substances are also present in most everyday objects and can cause cancer, hormone imbalances, infertility, as well as having a direct impact on the ecological balance.
The debate in the plenary session on 11 December would suggest a favourable result (EUROPE yesterday). It therefore comes as no surprise but to the very great delight of the Parliament, Council and Commission, that the compromise that the Parliament and Council reached on 30 November sailed through. Supported by the four main political groups (EPP-ED, PES, ADLE and the UEN), this compromise, consolidated in a single 720 page amendment was immediately voted on as a block. It received a very large majority of MEPs' approval (529 votes for, 98 against, 24 abstentions). No amendments submitted by the Greens/EFA and GUE were adopted. These two political groups voted against the common position of the Council as amended by the Parliament.
At the end of the vote, Guido Sacconi (PES, Italy), the main rapporteur on the dossier declared that “REACH is a very sensitive subject. Europe has just scored a point”. He received both applause and a bouquet of flowers for his unique negotiating skills and was unanimously congratulated.
Addressing the press, Mr Sacconi added, “529 votes is much more than the qualified majority needed. Everyone understood that we had reached a balancing point in a very complicated mosaic. This result is a collective fresco to which we have all contributed in ensuring that the defence of public health and the environment does not penalise companies but guarantees a new boost to the industrial fabric for meeting the challenge of competitiveness. The formal adoption of the text for 18 December (by the Environment Council: Editor's note) will allow for its publication by the end of the year and the entry into force of the regulation on 1 January 2007 as planned”.
Guido Sacconi conceded that the result was “not perfect” but was the only way of beginning implementation of REACH and allowing them to improve it. Revision mechanisms are planned to this end in the regulation. This also applies to the clause which, after six years of the regulation's entry into force, will allow for examination of the most recent scientific data. It will also help to see whether substances that disrupt the endocrine system should be excluded from the list of substances that are authorised subject to suitable controls. The rapporteur was pleased with two indubitable facts: the text voted on by Parliament “is an improvement on the Council's common position” and “Europe confirms that it is now in the top international league on matters pertaining to sustainable development”. During the world summit in Johannesburg, Heads of state and governments sought 2020 as a horizon (and not 2018 as the EU sought) as the date for finding a solution for tackling the problem of chemical products present in citizens' daily environment. Sacconi stressed that, “after 25 years of EU legislation in this field, we only know about properties in 300-400 substances. With REACH, we will find out about 30,000 substances over an eleven year period by identifying the most dangerous and submitting them to authorisation. I hope that the Agency for chemical products, the pillar of the whole system will be able to manage a system as weighty and as complex as this”.
Mauri Pekkarinen, the Finish minister for industry and president of the Council said that it was an “historic day…the dossier was far from easy. It was considerable work. We succeeded”. The result will be “better monitoring of 30,000 substances on the market”. Although the question of substitution of the most worrying substances by less harmful alternatives was “very thorny”, the president was delighted that a solution had been found. He emphasised that, “the key is in the substitution plan, which will be called on when adequate substitution products exist”.
REACH will involve additional costs for the industry, Mr Pekkarinen acknowledged, but “in the long term, product safety will lead to progress and greater European competitiveness”. The requirement on producers to provide clear information on the impact of their chemical substances on people's health and the environment, and the obligation, if necessary, to have substances assessed for the danger they pose and to submit the most toxic substances to an authorisation procedure are, he said, to be welcomed because they made “Europe a pioneer in product safety, for itself and also for world markets”.
Industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen welcomed the aid for hundreds of thousands of SMEs which produce and use chemical substances and provide millions of jobs to help them meet the requirements of the new legislation linking environmental targets, sole industrial: targets and economic growth. He said he was sure that REACH would not impede competitiveness, because there would be competitive advantages in the medium and long term. Stressing the complexity of the upcoming period, particularly with the creation of the Helsinki-based chemical products agency, which will be operational in six months, Mr Verheugen announced the Commission would publish a whole series of implementation regulations to help companies to adapt to the legislation, and ensure that the yardsticks used would be the same across all Member States. Particularly pleased with the lightening of red-tape in the registration procedure, he also welcomed the arrangements which would lead the industry to reflect lore on the substitution of dangerous products.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas was also very satisfied that an agreement had been found, an agreement which would have an impact on all sectors of industry and all citizens. Making producers responsible for producing all the necessary information on their products, the requirement to identify the risks and seek solutions, the introduction of the principle of gradual substitution of dangerous products and a very rigorous authorisation regime for particularly worrying substances was, he said, a significant step towards a healthier environment, and better protection of the health of citizens of the EU and the world. The estimated cost of the reform - between €2.8 billion and €5.2 billion over eleven years - would be, he said, far less than the advantages for health, the environment, the economy and the image of the chemical industry which will come out of it in a better condition.
Karl-Heinz Florenz (EPP-ED, Germany), Chair of the Committee on the Environment at the Parliament, took the view that the result reached - “unhoped for” just a short time ago - was only possible thanks to the resolve shown and the many trilogues between the three institutions. Like the directive on the management of electric and electronic waste, REACH is to become a “best-seller”. But this is only the beginning of a process that will be regularly updated, the MEP said, planning to keep close watch on the Commission in the announced abolition of forty European directives to be repealed by REACH. Mr Florenz said, moreover, that he was very concerned by the idea that the Parliament will not be involved (other than through comitology procedure) in the countless guidelines to be published by the Commission.
Although the Greens/EFA, GUE, French Socialists, consumer defence organisations and environmental NGOs are greatly disappointed that the Parliament has renounced the systematic substitution principle for all dangerous substances, as soon as safer alternatives exist, all recognise that a watered down REACH is better than the existing legislation whose inefficacy is apparent. The Environment Council will endorse the agreement without debate on 18 December. The same day, there will be a solemn ceremony for signing the REACH regulation at the Parliament in Brussels, by EP President Josep Borrell and Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. The text may be published in the Official Journal by 31 December, which would allow the regulation to take effect on 1 June 2007, as foreseen. (an)