Graham Watson MEP

European Lib Dems welcome European Parliament vote on complex REACH directive

Published on Thursday 17th November 2005

European Lib Dem MEPs gave their strong backing today to the European Parliament's First Reading on the complex and intensely lobbied European directive concerning the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) which was approved by a significant majority (407 to 155). Many of the votes were passed by a narrow margin with the Liberal Group making the difference on most of the essential issues.

Graham Watson, the South West and Gibraltar Lib Dem MEP said:

"Falling fertility rates in men and women and more and more cases of testicular and cervical cancer are almost certainly the result of increased chemical use. This new law is important to prevent us threatening the ability of our species to reproduce itself. Chemical companies will now have to prove that their products are safe before they put them on the market."

"MEPs have taken steps to lower the costs for industry of implementing REACH by reducing the number of tests required to prove safety but 99% of chemicals likely to pose a threat to health or the environment will still get identified. That is a major step forward."

"The overall balance of this package is fair and not far from the position being discussed in Council. We stand a good chance of achieving agreement on this across all the EU institutions by the end of the year."

Notes

REACH is designed to remove potentially toxic substances from circulation by getting industry to provide information on chemicals used in everyday products.

The discussion on REACH centres on three issues:

1) The burden of proof. The essence of REACH is that it will require manufacturers to prove that their chemicals are safe if they are to stay on the market. Industry lobbyists had been trying to stop this by making it the responsibility of the new European Chemicals Agency to assess each chemical on the basis of limited information supplied by manufacturers, calling for further tests only if necessary - a massive bureaucratic task that would have crippled the Agency.

2) Registration - The compromise package adopted reduces the number and type of tests that have to be carried out to provide proof of safety, although the Chemicals Agency can order more if these arouse any concern. This deal cuts the costs to industry and should ensure that 99% of problem chemicals get identified. Furthermore the principle of "duty of care" has been accepted which requires manufacturers to ensure that their products do not adversely affect human health or the environment.

3) Substitution/Authorisation - Authorisation will be granted for 5 years only and only if suitable, safer alternatives do not exist.