At a Competitiveness Council meeting this week, EU Member States achieved political agreement on the new chemicals regulation known as REACH. It paves the way for the council and the European Parliament to deliver a final joint agreement next year.
Lord Sainsbury, who chaired the council, and Defra minister Lord Bach, who represented the UK, welcomed the successful outcome:
“We are delighted that these long-running council negotiations on REACH have been brought to a successful conclusion. The agreement offers the opportunity to achieve proper protection of humans and the environment whilst maintaining the competitiveness of European industry.
“REACH will provide the tools necessary to provide detailed information on some 30,000 substances used in the EU, while strengthening the controls covering the substances of most concern. This will allow for a huge leap forward in our awareness of the impact of chemicals and other substances and so ensuring the highest level of protection for European citizens.
“At the same time, the changes made by the council significantly reduce the burden on small and medium-sized enterprises and put further measures in place to encourage data sharing and minimise testing.”
The key changes agreed by the council to the Commission’s original proposal include some reductions in information requirements on registration, requirements for the sharing of data, a new EU chemicals agency to co-ordinate evaluation, authorisations to be subject to review, greater encouragement for companies to seek safer alternatives, exemption of waste from REACH, review after 12 months and a strengthening in authorisation.
The new chemicals regulation will have its second reading before the European Parliament and the council next year.
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