27. Juli 2007 European Voice

Erika Mann

Back in the 1960s, the European Community adopted the first directive on chemicals. Ever since, European legislation on chemicals has had a great impact for consumers and the chemicals industry in Europe and elsewhere. The internationally well known REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) regulation, which has only been implemented from 1 June 2007, is the most prominent example of such regulation.
Currently, a rather technical regulation is being discussed in the European Parliament: on the export and import of dangerous chemicals (COM (2006)0745). Its main aim is to update the so-called Rotterdam Convention on the basis of a ruling of the European Court of Justice which suspended the previous regulation EC (2003)304.
The Rotterdam Convention was adopted in 1998 and entered into force in 2004. Its objective is to promote shared responsibility and co-operative efforts among parties in banning hazardous chemicals worldwide in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm (see Article 1 of the Convention). The Convention lists in its Annex III those chemicals which are subject to the so-called Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure. The PIC mechanism allows for obtaining and disseminating decisions taken by importing parties, as to whether they allow the import of certain chemicals and for ensuring compliance with these decisions by exporting parties. Currently there are 39 chemicals listed, including 24 pesticides, four severely hazardous pesticide formulations and 11 industrial chemicals. On top of this internationally agreed list, the European Community has its own list of chemicals that are seen as dangerous or potentially dangerous and banned both for import and export.

The current system often leads to difficulties for exporters and the national authorities involved in the export of these chemicals (so-called Designated National Authorities – DNA), because of delayed or missing responses from the importing countries. Obviously, it is hard for some exporters in third countries to understand the character of the additional European list of banned chemicals as well as the procedures involved to send prior information and confirmation to the EU. And sometimes prior information is not even given about substances that are not banned or severely restricted in the Union; these chemicals remain outside the EU as well.
The renewed implementation of the Rotterdam Convention is now being used by the Commission to find reasonable solutions for presently unreasonable methods, so as to enhance the flow of information and to streamline the regulation. According to the Commission’s proposal, if no answer to an import request is given by the importing country within two months, exporters will be allowed to proceed to exporting chemicals for the time being. The procedure is coupled with one condition, there has to be sufficient indication of consent, for example by official documents indicating that the chemical is registered, authorised or otherwise allowed for use in the importing country. My recommendation is to support the Commission’s proposals in principle but, for example, to tighten the timeframe for exporters.
This new regulation is still going significantly beyond the requirements of the Rotterdam Convention to meet specific Community regulation, but it will hopefully help to smooth the information process. It includes a wider range of chemicals than the Rotterdam Convention and follows a slightly different categorisation. Some chemicals that fall under certain categories are completely banned for export. Furthermore, the European Community rules apply to exports to all countries, not only to parties to the Convention. This approach is ethical and ensures that the EU respects its own regulatory environment in trading chemicals, both for export and import. But a regulation must be understandable for users, in this case for importers and exporters. The newly updated regulation for dangerous chemicals will, to a large degree, achieve this.

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