This reform should make it possible, by 2030, to ban or massively restrict the use of a multitude of dangerous chemicals.
Europe abandons its reform of Reach, the European regulation on chemicals. It is a renunciation with multiple consequences which was recorded this week in Brussels, as revealed on Tuesday, October 17, the newspaper The world :
When presenting its agenda for 2024 on Tuesday, the European Commission made no mention of reforming its regulations on chemicals, the Reach regulation. Created in 2007, this European regulation lists, records and evaluates the chemical substances present in toys, makeup, paints, cleaning products and ultimately in the air we breathe, the soil we breathe. cultivated, and the water we drink: phthalates, bisphenols, parabens, and of course the famous PFAS, perfluoroalkylated and polyfluoroalkylated, also called eternal pollutants.
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According to the French Ministry of Ecology, Reach “has the legal and technical means to guarantee to all a high level of protection against the risks linked to chemical substances”. On paper. In reality, of the 300 million tonnes of chemical substances produced per year in Europe, more than 70% of them are considered dangerous for health and the environment by Europe itself. And 18% are classified as potentially CMR, that is to say carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic, which can have consequences on the development of fetuses.
“Guarantee the competitiveness of businesses”
In order to protect consumer health, the European Commission has therefore embarked on a major project to reform Reach from top to bottom. A reform which would have made it possible to save between 11 and 30 billion euros per year. Promise of a “revolution” that made a splash.
Already a year ago the reform had been postponed until the end of 2023, provoking the anger of certain European deputies who denounced a victory for industrial lobbies. This week the postponement turned into a funeral. In his closing speech, Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič EC AV PORTAL (europa.eu) explained this renunciation as follows: “we must respect the damage caused to health and the environment but we must also guarantee the availability of chemical substances (…) and the competitiveness of our companies”. Before concluding : “It will take us several years.”
The Reach revolution will therefore not take place, European leaders having decided, in the words of a European Commission official to franceinfo, to sacrifice public health on the sacred altar of business competitiveness.