Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrictions of Chemicals: An Analysis

Abstract

Summary: The Community chemicals legislation is being re-written to amend and replace what is believed to be the inefficient and insufficient system of existing rules. The process, which started in 2001 with the publication of the White Paper on a New Chemicals Policy, has now come to the legislative adoption phase. This article analyses the European Commission's proposal for a Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrictions of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency and amending Directive 1999/45 and Regulation (EC) on Persistent Organic Pollutants, as presented in October 2003 for adoption by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. It analyses its individual provisions by reference to the objectives sought by the revision of the existing chemicals legislation and by reference to the general principles of Community law.