Germany calls for Reach deal to be postponed
Germany has asked the British EU presidency to postpone its plan to seek a ministerial political agreement on the Reach chemical policy at the end of this month.
08.11.2005 |Daniela Rosche
"Time is a bit short," a spokesman for the German government's Brussels office told Environment Daily on Friday. "In view of the fact that we have the biggest chemical industry in the EU, we think it legitimate to give us a little more time for the new people to make up their minds on the dossier."
Following inconclusive elections in September, German politicians are still struggling to put together a new grand coalition of the centre-left SPD and centre-right CDU/CSU parties. This will not fully replace the current SPD/Green coalition government before the end of November.
"We understand the difficulties facing Germany," Emma Lockwood of the UK's permanent representation in Brussels said. "It's an important dossier and we've already achieved a great deal. We'll consider what to do next."
It appears that the UK presidency will continue to pursue talks on Reach even if it cannot wrap up a deal. Senior national diplomats are due to discuss its latest compromise proposals next Friday.
Sources in the European parliament told Environment Daily that Reach rapporteur Guido Sacconi remained "absolutely determined" to go ahead with a scheduled plenary vote on 17 November to finalise the assembly's first reading position on the legislation.
Meanwhile, details have emerged of an impact analysis done last month by Denmark on informal European Commission proposals to soften Reach testing rules for low-volume substances. The Danish environment agency calculates that testing under this "room-paper" version of Reach would be much costlier than reckoned by the European Commission in its own assessment, finalised last week (ED 02/11/05).
n.b. A new, corrected version of the Commission assessment was circulated on Friday. See link below.
Follow-up: EU council of ministers, tel: +32 2 285 6211;
UK permanent representation. See also Danish impact assessment
and corrected Commission impact assessment.
