REACH and CEFIC’s Conception of a Feasible, Information and Priority Based Approach

REACH, the new European chemicals legislation, is in its fifth consecutive year of construction. The discussion of its main features has not yet reached a state that gives confidence that the act can enter into force by 2007, as currently envisaged by Council, Commission and Parliament of the European Union. What are the reasons for this controversial discussion? The most conflicting views seem to arise from matching the objectives of protecting man and the environment with the objective of competitiveness. All goals set out in the White Paper on 13 February 2001 on the Strategy of a future Chemicals Policy were welcomed by industry, especially since the environmental objectives were balanced with the economic one of “maintaining and improving the competitiveness of the chemical industry of the EU”. This was also in line with the Lisbon Goal on competitiveness of 24 March 2000, namely to “make the EU the most competitive, dynamic and knowledge-based economic region of the world”. However, if both goals, as formulated, are supported, a different approach must evidently be taken. The new chemicals legislation is supposed to consolidate current chemicals legislation, adding consistency and efficiency in working with it, according to the conclusions of the Informal Environment Council held at Chester under the UK Presidency in 1998: “Environment Ministers in June 1999 called on the Commission to consider, inter alia, measures that provide an efficient and integrated design of the various legal instruments for chemicals; place the main responsibility on industry for generating and assessing data; provide a more flexible approach to risk assessment with the aim of targeting assessments; and establish effective risk management strategies for certain chemicals that may cause threats of serious or irreversible damage to human health or the environment as a result of their inherent properties by giving appropriate weight to their use pattern and the possibility of exposure” (Chester, 1999). In pursuit of its assignment, the Commission chose to focus on the following major pieces of European chemicals legislation: (i) Directive 67/548 on classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous substances; (ii) Directive 88/379 on classification, packaging and labelling of dangerous preparations; (iii) REACH and CEFIC’s Conception of a Feasible, Information and Priority Based Approach