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There have been no traces of key legislative proposals in areas akin to chemical substances, animal welfare, and meals techniques within the 2024 work programme unveiled by the European Fee on Tuesday (17 October).
The EU government has backtracked on its pledges made below the 2020 Chemical substances Technique for Sustainability — triggering outrage amongst environmental campaigners who accused fee president Ursula von der Leyen of turning a blind eye to chemical air pollution and human well-being.
However it has additionally dumped different key proposals, akin to a ban on caged farming and the much-awaited legislation on sustainable meals — as soon as thought-about a “flagship initiative” of the Farm to Fork technique.
Notably, the chemical REACH reform is likely one of the main proposals lacking within the fee work programme.
The revision, initially anticipated in 2022, was already delayed till the tip of 2023 for political causes — and now seems to be prefer it won’t be occurring any time quickly.
Covid-19, the power disaster, Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and the general financial fallout have possible contributed to this delay.
Nonetheless, advocacy teams have blamed the fee for giving in to lobbyists, favouring business pursuits over residents.
“The income of the chemical business are extra necessary than the well being of Europeans,” mentioned Tatiana Santos, head of chemical substances coverage on the European Environmental Bureau.
Whereas REACH is broadly seen as one of many strictest legal guidelines governing chemical substances on the planet, its revision was geared toward prohibiting teams of chemical substances — as an alternative of assessing substances individually — to fast-track restrictions over essentially the most hazardous chemical substances.
In keeping with the European Environmental Bureau, it normally takes greater than a decade for the EU and nationwide authorities to identify poisonous chemical substances after which one other 10 years to clamp down on their use.
Hurts enterprise, too
When requested by EUobserver whether or not the fee might present any particulars on its supposed main chemical reform, a spokesperson argued that work continues to be ongoing, since this file requires hanging the precise steadiness between industrial competitiveness and environmental and human safety.
Throughout a debate on Wednesday, the fee lastly recognised that the reform won’t come below the present legislative time period.
“Given the complexity of the file, it’s potential that the REACH modification should be taken ahead within the subsequent mandate,” EU commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, fee vice-president and present EU Inexperienced Deal chief, instructed MEPs.
Nevertheless, specialists argue that suspending its reforms creates authorized uncertainty for companies within the sector — a priority beforehand additionally raised by MEPs.
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“The present uncertainties across the regulatory atmosphere don’t profit any stakeholders, not even large corporations, as a result of they harm the projection capacities of buyers,” Natacha Cingotti, an knowledgeable on chemical substances from the Well being and Surroundings Alliance instructed EUobserver.
She mentioned new proof is persistently exhibiting how “ineffective” the implementation of the present legislation is and the way pressing it’s to reform it.
The extensively documented and long-standing challenge of widespread human publicity to the so-called ‘endlessly chemical substances’ — technically referred to as PFAS — is an instance of the shortcomings of the present REACH regulation.
“Delaying a protecting and progressive reform of REACH would imply a missed alternative for the EU to resume this management place,” Cingotti additionally mentioned.
In the meantime, extra laws that has been dropped from the work programme consists of the ban on non-essential makes use of of essentially the most dangerous chemical substances in shopper merchandise like toys, child nappies, cosmetics or meals packaging.
Earlier this yr, leaked paperwork revealed that the proposal was already anticipated to lack enamel.
The work programme additionally lacks the widely-anticipated prohibition on exporting banned chemical substances from Europe to different elements of the globe — a multimillion-euro enterprise for some corporations in Europe.
Though these proposals do not function on the fee work programme, they could possibly be added at a later stage.
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