This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at La propuesta británica sobre el Reach obtiene un amplio apoyo

The British proposal on Reach obtained broad support

21/10/2005

on October 21, 2005

Industry of 25 Ministers last week expressed "broad support" for the British compromise proposal on the European register of chemical substances (Reach) and committed themselves to reach a political agreement on the text at the end of NovemberOnce the European Parliament has made its first reading.

"We are near of find a balance between environmental concerns and health and the need to preserve the competitiveness of the European economy," said the Vice-Chairman of the Committee and responsible for industry and company, Günter Verheugen.

The Spanish representative, José Montilla, requested exclusion of this register to several industrial sectors, like glass, refractory, tiles, ceramic chips and cement. "It's sectors covered by other legislation that considers issues related to the safety, health and the environment, for which the Reach registration would not provide additional benefits", he said. Portugal joined the Spanish request.

This request responds to the demands of the industry Spanish azulejera, which is concentrated in Manises, Valencia and Castellón and is also shared by Italy.

The discussion focused mainly on two themes. First, all twenty-five discussed information requirements to register substances produced in small quantities between 1 and 10 tonnes per year. The majority of delegations, including Spain, supported the British proposal, advocates a selective approach, which would require more testing for substances that are known that they can be dangerous and less for the rest. As regards substances produced between 10 and 100 tonnes a year, United Kingdom proposes to eliminate one of the two trials of reproductive toxicity which called for the EU Executive, and that was especially expensive. But the Commission has changed its stance and calls now that some analysis can be deleted if a substance is not in direct contact with people.

In this case, the Minister of industry pointed out that the requirements required "should be reduced to those actually needed to determine its toxicity to the health and environmental effects".

The other major topic of discussion was the principle "one substance, one registration", which would force companies to share data if you want to register the same substance. This measure has been promoted by United Kingdom with the aim of reducing costs, but the industry, and some delegations such as France, opposed. The Commission had proposed that it was required to share data in case of test animals above and volunteer in the rest.

Spain is in favour of the single record because it has important benefits for small and medium-sized enterprises, but Montilla noted that "there may be difficulties in some cases, so it should be left open the possibility of establishing exceptions, duly justified by the persons concerned to the Agency".