Commissioners Erkki Liikanen, enterprise, and Margot Wallström, environment, unveiled an ’orientation paper’ on the EU’s new chemicals policy to commissioners last Wednesday 7 May 2003.
At the same time, the proposed ’Reach’ system - to Register, Evaluate and Authorise CHemicals - was posted online for a long-awaited final public consultation to test its workability.
The final proposal, a sweeping overhaul bringing together elements of 60 directives, will be finalised by late July. However, environment and industry groups fear that the regulation will not be discussed by the European Parliament ahead of the 2004 elections.
The Liikanen-Wallström paper features new cost-benefit figures and additional policy elements, including an exemption from registration for substances used in research and development and limiting coverage of substances in consumer articles.
While the cost estimate for Reach - 3.6 billion Euro over ten years - remains unchanged, the paper suggests there may be indirect costs of up to 26 billion Euro until 2020. There would also be an additional 400 million Euro one-off administrative cost.
