European Chemicals Policy

Legislative process is progressing

The European Union (EU) is planning to revise its chemicals legislation. In principle Degussa welcomes this move. Experts in the company have therefore played an active role in the critical debate about the new policy and are supporting the work of the European chemical industry associations. Progress is now being made in the legislative process and a final decision by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers is expected in fall 2006.

The heart of the new chemicals legislation is the REACH Regulation. REACH stands for registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals. In fall 2005 the European Parliament adopted a number of amendments to the proposal put forward by the European Commission. These were basically welcomed by the chemical industry despite a number of points that the industry considers very critical. These include the proposal that authorization of particularly hazardous substances, such as those that are carcinogenic, should be limited to five years. That would have raised enormous questions about the legal basis for investment in the European chemical industry and made planning capital expenditures extremely difficult.

Before the end of last year, the European Council of Ministers decided not to impose a general time limit on authorization. Instead, it suggested that decisions should be based on an evaluation of the risks in each case. The Council of Ministers also facilitated the procedure for substances used in research and development. That is particularly important for Degussa as a specialty chemicals company, because it makes innovation possible.

The industry also welcomes a number of amendments made to the draft version of the REACH Regulation by the European Parliament. These include further finetuning of the scope of REACH by excluding a number of existing statutory requirements in order to avoid duplicating regulations. It also makes sense to base the requirements on how intensively men and the environment are exposed to a specific substance. The central role of the European Chemicals Agency is also seen as a positive aspect. Nevertheless, from Degussa’s view point, the costs involved in testing substances produced in small and medium quantities are still too high. It also feels that protection of intellectual property and sensitive data is not yet adequate.