Europe's New Chemicals Plan Requires Market Authorization

BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 1, 2003 (ENS) - European Commission proposals for the central feature of a revised EU chemicals policy - a strict market authorization procedure for chemicals of very high concern - will include persistent and bioaccumulative substances, Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom said Monday.

Speaking at a Brussels conference just weeks before the Commission is expected to put forward its plans, the Wallstrom said chemicals classed as either persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBTs) or as very persistent and very bioaccumulative (vPvBs) would have to undergo the authorization step of the new REACH policy. REACH stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals.

Chemical testing (Photo courtesy West Yorkshire Materials Testing Service)

Wallstrom used the conference to reveal several other points now agreed by the two departments. Endocrine disrupting substances and those "of an equivalent level of concern" will also undergo authorization on a case by case basis, she said.

Intermediate substances formed in chemical production processes will also have to be registered by firms, she said. But their treatment will vary from a total exemption for those which are not extracted from the process, to the full procedure for those that are handled like other substances put on the market. Reduced registration requirements will apply to polymers, she said.

Wallstrom said, "In the future, the chemicals industry will be responsible for generating and providing the necessary information about their own products in line with corporate responsibility."

Commission sources said the proposals should be passed to other Commission services for consultation this week before a final meeting of all 20 commissioners to settle outstanding points. A short public stakeholder consultation to ensure "workability"of the plans will begin in mid-May before the draft legislation is formally presented July.

European industry assocation Cefic signalled its continued opposition to the design of REACH. "The scope should be limited to what's really necessary," director general Alain Perroy told the gathering. All intermediates and polymers should be exempted entirely, he said.

Other speakers at the conference expressed concerns that next year's European parliament elections might delay or complicate enactment of REACH. The assembly might well fail to deliver its first reading opinion before its last pre-election session in April, several said. After the elections the new parliament will include representatives from up to 10 additional countries, making its eventual view all the more uncertain.

{Published in cooperation with ENDS Environment Daily, Europe's choice for environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London. Email: envdaily@ends.co.uk}