Reach: Unworkable unless simplified, says Industry/EU group

05 July 2005 18:25  [Source: ICIS news]

BRUSSELS (CNI)--The European Union's new chemicals policy, Reach*, will be unworkable unless the proposed regulation is greatly simplified, the industry/European Union (EU) partnership set up to investigate reach workability and given the acronym Sport**, said on Tuesday.

 

According to Cefic, the European chemical industry trade body and a leading member of the Sport programme, Sport showed that Reach will not be workable without significant simplification.

 

It called for greater clarity of roles and responsibilities down the supply chain; for maximum use to be made of existing information, and general acceptance that changes to the roles and responsibilities of various EU and member state instructions will have to be made.

 

Cefic director general, Alain Perroy, said: “The Sport report, together with the findings of the most recent impact assessment, clearly calls for further improvement of the Reach proposal in order to simplify and clarify the process.” Perroy added that this is especially important for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

 

The Sport report makes 39 recommendations but highlights the need to develop working procedures that facilitate cooperation between companies and to establish mechanisms that support the grouping of substances.

 

“Reach will only deliver its health and environmental benefits if it works on the ground, not only on paper,” Cefic director of Reach/chemicals policy Lena Perinius said today in Brussels at the official launch of the Sport report.

 

The Sport partnership between the European Commission (EC), member states and European industry, was formed to May 2004 on the suggestion of industry to test and establish the workability of Reach. Pilot programmes assessed the feasibility of the pre-registration, registration and dossier evaluation steps of the legislative proposals.

 

Speaking at the launch, Erwin Tomschik, representing the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) said the Sport study showed that “no manufacturing company can meet the task of Reach".

 

“We will be asking for modifications for all actors along the supply chain. There is a need to install system exposure categories which allow downstream producers to act more efficiently, while safeguarding confidentiality,” he said.

 

Tomschik lamented what he saw as the lack of SME involvement in the Reach process. “You have to involve downstream users more in such activities, it is not enough to proscribe to downstream users and say you must live with it. We must help and educate downstream users.”

 

However, Elmar Bohlen from the German Federal Institute for Occupation, Safety and Health, presented an alternate view. “From our point of view Reach does not need many more changes in terms of workability. Maybe because we have the resources, it is not such a problem. That may not be the same for everyone,” he said.

 

* Reach: the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals.

**Sport stands for strategic partnership on Reach testing.

 

(Nigel Davis in London contributed to this story.)

By: Martin Todd
+44 208 652 3214

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly