Chem majors push to destroy Reach - Greenpeace

04 May 2006 14:05  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Chemical majors, spearheaded by BASF, have pushed to undermine and destroy the European Union’s (EU) attempts to protect the public from hazardous chemicals through Reach, Greenpeace said in a report released on Thursday.

The report – Toxic Lobby: How the chemicals industry is trying to kill Reach (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals) – claimed the chemicals industry has scared and misled decision-makers.

“A day after the European Commission launched a new initiative to control excessive lobby influence in Brussels, the Greenpeace report documents the prominent role of the German government and German chemicals giant BASF in leading the opposition to Reach in Brussels,” the environmental organisation said.

“BASF, which spearheaded an international campaign to mobilise the US and other non-EU governments to undermine Reach admitted in 2005 that it had 235 politicians under contract in Germany alone,” it added.

“The chemicals industry’s corrosive campaign to destroy Reach thus far has depended on the willingness of key officials to abandon their role as public servants and behave like industry lobbyists,” said Jorgo Riss, director of Greenpeace European Unit.

The organisation said the report compared the projected cost of Reach, about Euro200m a year, with chemicals industry sales of Euro586bn, and added that revenues were 2,790 times as much as implementation of the new legislation would cost.

“While the industry was arguing in Brussels that it could not afford safety regulations on cost grounds, BASF sales rose 14% to Euro47.2bn, and its net income rose 50% to Euro3bn,” it added.

Noone from BASF, which on Thursday said its first quarter operating income before special items jumped by 19% to Euro1.9bn, was immediately available to comment on the report.

By: Hilde Ovrebekk
+44 20 8652 3214

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