Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-11-Speech-1-081"
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"en.20061211.14.1-081"2
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"Mr President, it seems such a calm conclusion to such a tempestuous debate.
It is some seven years since REACH was first announced to ministers at the Environment Council. Remember the fears about all the impact assessments and the wild figures about how much REACH was going to cost and the risk that this would lead to the European chemical industry disappearing from the shores of this continent and relocating in China. Within this Chamber there have been all sorts of parliamentary tactics to delay and destroy REACH over the years, and here we are with a remarkable measure of agreement all round. Perhaps in practice we have made some modifications. We are on the right track.
I have high hopes for REACH. I hope it will enable us to identify, control and replace chemicals that are detrimental to our health and environment. I hope it will be implemented without excessive difficulty, particularly for SMEs, at a cost that will not threaten the competitiveness of our industry. I hope it will stimulate the validation and development of alternative non-animal testing methods. I hope it will promote innovation within the industry and give Europe a cutting edge in the world. I hope it will not lead to a transfer of jobs but instead will increase consumers’ confidence, here in Europe and across the world, in the chemicals our industry produces. I hope that enough scientists will want to brave the dark winters of Finland in order to ensure the European Chemicals Agency is the success we hope it will prove. I hope this is going to set a lead for the entire world, a regulatory regime that will be a benchmark for governments elsewhere. I hope the package we have agreed between us, with much assistance from the Finnish Presidency over recent months and of course with the guidance of Mr Sacconi, will firmly steer the industry towards substituting chemicals of high concern by safer alternatives and promote the development of such alternatives.
I hope for all those things, but probably a lot of water still has to flow under the bridge before my hopes will be realised. There are a lot of imponderables. How will the European Chemicals Agency really interpret its remit and how will REACH be defined in practice? Only time will tell.
I am not ecstatic about the result. I have accepted compromises that I would have preferred to have avoided. I would have preferred stronger emphasis on substitution. It was a terrible mistake that, right at the end of the negotiations, the Council actually offered us the chance to incorporate hormone disruptors – endocrine disruptors – within the socio-economic categories – the substitution categories – and we as a Parliament declined and settled for a review in six years’ time. That is astonishing!
However, I do not agree with one spokesman for WWF, who recently denounced the final outcome of REACH as a disgrace. On the contrary, it is very much a step in the right direction and, if our hopes are realised, it may prove to be one of the most significant measures this Union has ever taken, of real long-term advantage both to our economy and our environment."@en1
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