Fecc statement on the new Chemical Strategy for Sustainability

Fecc statement on the new Chemical Strategy for Sustainability

Brussels, 14 October 2020

Today the European Commission has published the new EU’ Chemical Strategy for Sustainability. Fecc supports this initiative as an opportunity for a more sustainable approach in handling and distributing chemicals and shares the Commission´s vision of maximizing the protection of human health and the environment.

Fecc Director General – Dorothee Arns – comments “Fecc welcomes the proposals included in the new Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, which can be a real opportunity for our sector. This applies specifically to SMEs, provided that it can support the industry to deliver on the European Green Deal objectives and strengthen Europe´s strategic value chains. Potential risks lie in additional complexity for SMEs to implement the regulatory measures, which appear to lack clarity on how to cope with the current geopolitical context and how they can contribute to achieving the objectives spelled out in the European Green Deal”.

Fecc calls on regulatory predictability in combination with more EU investments in innovation and a science-based approach towards REACH and other major pieces of technical regulation as major legislative framework in the chemical sector. At the same time the distribution sector would appreciate, if this valuable initiative could also lead to a more harmonized approach between REACH and BPR (biocidal products regulation) on substance identity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only shown that chemicals are essential enablers for meeting the societal mega-challenges, but also that the Commission can identify processes to simplify methodologies for regulations without compromising compliance with the highest HSE standards. Fecc sees the strategy as an opportunity to review these types of overlaps in support of the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability objective of simplifying and strengthening its legal framework, fully in line with the Commission´s Better Regulation agenda, while ensuring its full enforcement in Europe.

However, the strategy’s success can only be ensured by greater policy coherence and a coordinated approach to support the Green Deal objectives. This could be achieved by means of an intense stakeholder dialogue with the entire chemical value chain, to which the European distributors would be more than happy to actively contribute.