EU Environment Commissioner Wallström to address Beyond REACH Seminar

Margot Wallström, Environment Commisioner of the European Commission, is to head an impressive list of speakers at the Beyond Reach conference to be staged in Brussels on 31 March/1 April 2003.

The conference, which is organised by The Economist’s European Voice newspaper, provides an independent platform for debate and will focus on the proposed legislation for a new system to Register, Evaluate and Authorise Chemicals (REACH). Among the key issues that will be addressed, are questions such as:

• How will REACH benefit European competitiveness and innovation?

• How will it ensure safer products for consumers and the environment?

• How will it be policed and funded?

• How will it interact with other global regulatory systems?

The Beyond REACH conference was developed for those involved in chemicals manufacturing, use and safety and will be co-chaired by Dennis Abbott, Editor of the European Voice, Niels von Hombracht, member of the executive board, European Petrochemical Association and former board member, Royal Vopak NV and David Earnshaw, Managing Director, Burson-Marsteller.

Other speakers include Alain Perroy, Director-General of CEFIC; Reinhard Reibsch, Secretary-General, European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation; Colin Church, Chemicals & GM Policy, UK Dept for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Bob McDonald, President, Global Fabric & Homecare, Procter & Gamble; Professor David Pearce, Department of Economics, University College London; Jean-Paul Mingasson, Director-General, DG Enterprise; John Hontelez, Secretary General, European Environmental Bureau; David Duncan, Senior Vice-President, Global R&D Research, Unilever plc; Marco Maurizi, Vice-President, ISAV (Unionchimica); part of CONFAPI, the Italian Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises; Jim Murray, Director, BEUC (European Consumers’ Organisation); Emilia Müller MEP; Charles A. Ford, Minister-Counsellor for Commercial Affairs, US Mission to the EU; William Lakin, Director-General, Euratex (The European Apparel and Textile Organisation); Xavier Durieu, Secretary-General, EuroCommerce (The Retail, Wholesale and International Trade Representation to the EU); Anna-Liisa Sundquist, Ministerial Adviser, Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs & Health, and Chair, OECD Harmonisation Task Force (part of the UN’s development of a worldwide Globally Harmonised System for Hazard Classification and Labelling).

REACH will have long-term implications not only for chemicals manufacturers, but also for downstream users, retailers and SMEs. Their concerns range from the time and cost burdens of testing to the practicalities of implementing the new system.

Environmental and consumer groups, on the other hand, are anxious to see and end to the use of the most dangerous and harmful chemicals which can accumulate in the human body, nature and wildlife. They also want to ensure the enforcement of greater transparency about the substances which find their way into everyday consumer products.

The EU’s major trading partners have also raised concerns about the impact of REACH on imports and its implications for free trade in a global trading environment, should chemicals policy be seen only in a worldwide context?

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