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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.
Artikel auch zu finden unter:
http://www.europeanvoice.com/archive/article.asp?id=28629