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Environment

Chemicals Plan Gains Momentum

EU environment commissioner says REACH proposal is moving ahead

by PATRICIA SHORT
April 11, 2005 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 83, Issue 15

Dimas
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Credit: EUROPEAN COMMISSION PHOTO
Credit: EUROPEAN COMMISSION PHOTO

EUROPEAN UNION

Work on REACH--the European Union's draft legislation on the registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals--is gaining momentum. That was the word last week from Stavros Dimas, the European commissioner responsible for the environment, in a major speech in Brussels to a group of German political leaders.

Dimas' comments reinforce the warning expressed by Jan Backmann, international regulatory affairs manager at Swiss contract research and consulting firm RRC Ltd., at a meeting held late last month in Arlington, Va. At the meeting, co-organized by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association, Backmann advised U.S. chemical companies to prepare for REACH if they have business in Europe (C&EN, April 4, page 53). The legislative plan, he said, is not going to go away.

According to Dimas, the European Parliament and Council are now weighing three broad groups of amendments. One group would increase protections against harmful chemicals and tighten controls, restoring some proposals that had been deleted following the EC's Internet consultation in 2003. Another group would allow exemption or lighter treatment of certain groups of substances. A third set of amendments would streamline the workings of REACH.

"I would like to address a persistent misunderstanding," Dimas said at one point. "There was speculation that the commission plans to withdraw the proposal to rewrite it and resubmit it to the legislators. This speculation was unfounded. As you know, we are not going to do that."

Separately, some members of the committees debating REACH are expected to delay their reports until they have received a new analysis of impact assessment studies. This analysis will be based on EC data recently forwarded to an independent consultant.

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