Liz Lynne MEP welcomes European Parliament vote on complex REACH directive

12.00.00am GMT Thu 17th Nov 2005

Liz Lynne, Liberal Democrat MEP for the West Midlands, today welcomed the European Parliament's First Reading position on the complex European directive concerning the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH), which was approved by a significant majority.

Speaking today from Strasbourg, Liz said:

"I am pleased that Europe is taking steps to bring order to the situation and set some vital safety standards. Chemical companies will now have to prove that their products are safe before they put them on the market.

"At the same time, 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 special difficulties of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been acknowledged by providing for the 'one substance, one registration' principle, with the necessary precautions to protect commercial confidentiality and some of the more expensive screening tests have been removed from chemicals produced in larger quantities of over 10 tonnes.

"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 inter-institutional consensus on this by the end of the year." She concluded.

Notes to Editors:

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.