EU officials seek to make sense of 36 REACH reports

National officials meeting in The Hague have recommended cutting down the costs of the draft EU chemicals law on businesses while estimating the long-term benefits for society at "tens of billions" of euros.

National officials meeting for a workshop in The Hague, Netherlands, have put forward a series of recommendations and conclusions based on an overview of the 36 impact studies published on REACH to date. 

In their conclusions, officials agreed that the costs of REACH to business - and on SMEs in particular - were too high and needed to be curbed. To this end, they recommended that the bureaucracy involved with the implementation of REACH be kept to a minimum. They also urged for effective co-operation from companies on implementation and information sharing once the law is passed in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of tests and keep the overall costs for industry to a minimum.

The national delegates also calculated the health benefits of REACH for society at large. Those are estimated to be "at least tens of billions" of euros with the number of cancer deaths reduced by "several thousands", especially among workers exposed to hazardous substances.

The workshop issued observations and recommendations on four main items which are summarised below:

Direct costs and benefits: 

• Costs for the EU-25 are approximately 4 billion euros.
• Main benefits for businesses include: better health for employees exposed to hazardous substances (between €18 and €54 billion over 30 years); creation of a level playing field for European businesses; likely positive effect on innovation in the long run (increased R&D expenditure to develop safer alternatives). 
• REACH should be as user-friendly as possible with bureaucracy kept to a minimum and tools developed to facilitate businesses to comply with REACH.
• Registration costs should be reduced by enhancing co-operation between companies on data sharing and avoid duplications.
• Costs imposed on downstream users should be reduced by further exploring the concepts of 'use' and 'exposure' categories of businesses.
• Expensive animal testing can be replaced by alternative methods, thereby reducing costs.

Indirect costs and benefits: 

• Downstream users need "early stage clarity" about which products or ingredients can be supplied in order to keep indirect costs at lowest possible level.
• Companies who momentarily exceed marketing weight thresholds may be hampered in their expansion by heavier reporting requirements. Resulting (longer) marketing time needs should be minimised in order to avoid competitive disadvantages with the US or Asia.

Impact on society: 

• Benefits to society are "undisputed" but hard to quantify. They include reductions in diseases, improved worker safety and improvement of biodiversity. These are estimated to be "at least  tens of billions of euros" until 2020 (ranging from less than €10 and €200 billion depending on conservative or optimistic scenarios). 
• Costs to society are also difficult to estimate. They include loss of workplaces, less competitive businesses and price increases passed on to consumers. 

Competitiveness and innovation:

• While REACH should ensure a level playing between companies within the EU, European companies selling outside the EU may be at a disadvantage compared to international competitors.
• Certain sectors - SMEs in particular - are expected to be more affected than others.
• Short run innovation may be hampered by new legislation, but in the long run REACH may stimulate innovative new products and provide a first mover advantage for EU companies on the world stage.

The workshop also recognised that some substance groups such as metals and minerals needed special attention (see EURACTIV,21 October 2004).