Finnish agency overseeing EU chemicals too small, says industry
By Lisbeth Kirk
Finnish experts have warned that the bureau planned to oversee the EU's new chemical legislation would be far too small.
The chief executive of the Finnish Chemical Industry Federation, Hannu Vornamo, said, according to the Finnish News Agency STT, that the workload of the bureau would be so extensive that 200 employees would not be enough.
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According to Finnish media, France has proposed to launch operations with 500 staff members. At a later stage, the number of employees could well grow to 700 or 800, according to Mr Vornamo.
Hearing in European Parliament
The warning comes ahead of a European Parliament discussion on Wednesday, conducted by three committees, on the the EU’s sweeping reform of chemical regulatory policy.
The EU’s regulation of chemicals has been the subject of huge interest by stakeholders with industrial lobbyists on the one side and environmental and health NGOs on the other.
Twenty-five women and their families from the UK Women’s Institute have travelled to Brussels to lobby their MEPs on the importance of controlling the use of chemicals.
"We want chemicals labelled with a label we can understand", explained Ruth Bond of the group. "So we know what’s in things and then its up to us whether we buy it or not."
Public interest
The European Commission presented its latest draft on the new EU regulatory framework for chemicals, REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) in October 2003.
The proposal was presented after an eight-week long public internet hearing which resulted in a total of 6400 comments from the industry, NGOs, and governments.
"Industry is not against the REACH objectives but ... we can make it cost-efficient and more workable," said Philippe de Buck, the secretary general of business lobby UNICE in a statement ahead of Wednesday's hearing.
Environmental and health NGOs, however, accuse industry of putting forward proposals that would both weaken and make the legislation unworkable.
More than 100 000 chemicals
Described as one of the most important legislative acts in EU history, the REACH proposal would request industry to register some 30,000 commonly used chemicals.
Chemicals that are manufactured or imported in quantities of more than one tonne per year and per manufacturer/importer should be registered in a central database.
The registration would include information on properties, uses and safe ways of handling the chemicals.
The number of 'existing' chemicals in 1981 was 100,106, while the number of 'new chemicals' put on the market since 1981 has reached around 3,000, according to the Commission.
New chemicals have to be notified and tested in production volumes as low as 10kg per year, while there are no such provisions for 'existing' chemicals.