By Brian Johnson - 25th April 2005
MEPs want to balance both consumer and industry concerns on controversial REACH chemicals proposals, says Karl-Heinz Florenz MEP.
In an interview with EUpolitix.com|the Parliament Magazine, chairman of the European Parliament’s environment committee, Florenz said that REACH was one of the most important and wide ranging dossiers the EU has ever had.
The debate over whether 30,000 commonly used chemicals should be tested and registered in a precautionary approach has fuelled fierce debate between industry and employers’ organisations and environmental and consumer groups.
“The parliament is keen to find a balanced approach between the interests of 450 million people and the chemicals industry…that is where we want to go to make the REACH proposal possible, [it has to be] workable,” said Florenz.
The German centre-right MEP says he is concerned that the proposals are too bureaucratic and may be prohibitive for small businesses.
“In Germany, we call a basement with thousands of documents that nobody ever reads a ‘data cemetery', we are not interested in ‘data cemeteries’. So making REACH workable, that is our most important objective.”
And finding an economic balance will be a challenge for EU politicians he suggests.
“We have to be aware that REACH has costs and benefits and to bring both together is not easy…we need a balanced process, and I am concerned about the [rules] on importing goods.”
“I hope that REACH is not a bridge to exporting jobs to the Far East,” warns Florenz.
Business leaders have been demanding that the proposed legislation’s emphasis on quantities produced be watered down.
Instead they want a focus on the most toxic substances, arguing that more red tape will stifle the industry’s competitiveness.
“I think the general [tonne based approach] is too bureaucratic. A lot of people in the European Parliament believe that a combination between tonnes, risk and exposure is the right approach,” says Florenz.
But a series of studies commissioned by Brussels and up for discussion on Wednesday at a high level group looking at the impact of the legislation, suggests that that implementing the REACH proposals will not be as expensive as industry has suggested.
EU environment chief, Stavros Dimas, said in a speech on Tuesday that the ‘cost and impact’ case studies back up the commission’s original 2003 estimate of €2.3 billion over eleven years.
“The results seem to confirm the commission’s original estimates. It is likely that there will be very limited withdrawal of substances due to the cost of registration, and that the chemicals industry will be able to pass the cost to downstream users,” said Dimas.
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