CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING
NEWS OF THE WEEK JULY 7, 2003 - EDITED BY WILLIAM G. SCHULZ & BETHlANY HAUFORD
EUROPEAN
CHEMICALS
EU REGULATORY SCHEME PANNED German chancellor says proposed chemicals policy will harm industry
G
ERMAN CHANCELLOR GER-
hard Schroder spoke out forcefully against the Eu ropean Commission's draft poli cy on chemical testing and regu lation at the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) gen eral assembly meeting, held on June 27 in Hamburg, Germany The proposed policy, which would require explicit govern ment authorization before cer tain chemicals could be sold in European Union countries, has dominated discussion at almost every European chemicals meet ing since it was introduced in the form of an EC white paper two years ago. But Schroder's criti cism of the draft added a highlevel endorsement of the indus try's cautious response. Schroder argued that "the competitiveness of the European chemical industry must not be neglected. It is essen tial for Europe to have a registration system—there is no way for each EU member country to do it different ly But the current propos al pos es too much
of a burden on the industry." Moreover, he added, the leg islation as proposed "would be attacked—probably successful ly—by our overseas allies," un der World Trade Organization criteria. Comments like these were sweet music to the company and industry association executives at the CEFIC meeting, who are concerned about how any policy will be put into effect. Workabil ity was one of the major points the EC wanted addressed in May when it posted all 1,200 pages of the draft chemicals policy on its Internet site for comment. This week winds up the con sultation period. And, as Eggert Voscherau, president of CEFIC and vice chairman of BASF, not ed: "We need workable regula tion, not regulation overkill that stifles innovation and fails to meet its political objectives. We had thought that the proposed chemicals policy would be an ex cellent opportunity to ensure bet ter regulation." With chemicals as one of the top industries in 11 of the 15 mem ber countries of the EU, Voscher au added, it is especially important to keep it growing and healthy What industry experts see in the draft, however, is causing deep concerns, he said. "It will over whelm the authorities. Are they
SCHRODER SPEAKS OUT German chancellor criticizes draft policy on chemical testing and regulation. i*
C&EN
/ JULY
7,
2003
really focused on what needs to be done?" Schroder claimed that imple menting the draft policy would cost several billion euros. "This must be reduced if we want to meet our objective of competi tiveness of the industry," he said. "Most of the companies in this industry in Europe are not large, but SMEs [small to mediumsized enterprises]. The burden of red tape and regulation would fall particularly hard on them." Schroder's comments rein forced points made in a letter he sent to the European Council of Ministers this spring along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac. "The European industry has to hold its own in global com petition," the three agreed. "It cannot be used as a laboratory for regulatory experiments which increase costs or burdens on employers." The other speaker at the as sembly Erkki Liikanen, the Euro pean commissioner responsible for enterprise and information socie ty acknowledged Schroder's con cerns. "Industry matters," he said. Ά strong and competitive indus try is a sine qua non to build a more competitive and dynamic knowl edge-based economy capable of sustainable economic growth." It remains to be seen what will emerge from the EC, which is ex pected to issue its final legislative proposal at the end of the sum mer, when the proposal will be presented to the Council of Min isters and the European Parlia ment. It is unlikely that Parlia ment will be able to deal with the proposal before the end of its term next May A new Parliament will be elected inJuly, so it is prob able that it won't be until late 2004 that Europe finally has its chemicals policy—however it is worked out. —PATRICIA SHORT HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
