The French parliament’s European affairs committee adopted on Wednesday (14 February) a European resolution tabled by Nicolas Thierry (Europe Écologie Les Verts, NUPES) calling for a revised REACH regulation on hazardous chemicals in everyday products.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Thierry presented a motion for a European resolution on the REACH regulation, which was immediately adopted by the National Assembly’s European Affairs Committee.

The REACH regulation, which stands for Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals, aims to control the marketing of hazardous chemicals found in everyday consumer products.

The revision of the regulation, whose current version dates from 2007, has been postponed time and again, and now seems to have been definitively buried, since REACH is no longer on the European Commission’s 2024 agenda published on 17 October.

Thierry pointed out that the state of scientific knowledge has evolved considerably since 2007 and that the regulation has become obsolete.

According to the European Commission, only one-third of the registration dossiers submitted by manufacturers to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) contain all the information required by the regulation.

“This stand taken by the National Assembly, voted for today by MPs from all sides of the House, is a strong political signal for Europe,” Thierry said.

“REACH is an amazing tool for regulating the circulation of chemical substances and combating the civilisation of toxic substances,” he added.

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), every year around 300 million tonnes of chemical substances are produced in the EU, 74% of which are considered “dangerous to health or the environment”.

Thierry is now calling on the French government to “use all its political power” with the European Commission to ensure the REACH regulation comes before the EU elections in June.

“The European Commission must act based on public health and life, not competitiveness and profit”, he concluded.

EU quietly shelves REACH regulation on toxic chemicals

The European Commission this week appeared to indefinitely shelve a promised revision of its REACH regulation on chemical safety, refusing to give Parliament a clear indication of when the proposal will be tabled, if at all.