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REACH Timeline

Progress through EU legislative process

Future of REACH


		Jun	1 June 2007 - REACH enters into force in all 27 Member States



		Jun	By June 2008 committees attended by representatives from EU member states and chaired by the EU Commission ( a procedure called “comitology”) will make important decisions on the criteria for establishing threshold concentrations for substances of very high concern and revising the list of substances exempted from the scope of the legislation.

		Dec	By December 2008 (again in comitology committees) review of:– the criteria for identifying substances that are Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) or that are Very Persistent and Very Bioaccumulative (vPvB) Criteria defining what constitutes adequate justification for avoiding to perform certain safety tests



		Dec	December 2010 (after 3.5 years) – Deadline for registration of chemicals of very high concern and substances produced/imported in high volumes (above 1,000 tonnes per year)

			2012 (after 5 years) - General review under EU co-decision (a decision-making process where the European Parliament and the governments act as co-legislators) of: the scope of the law (will add/delete chemicals - to the list of substances covered by the legislation) the information requirements for substances produced/imported between 1-10 tonnes per year



			2013 (after 6 years) - General review under EU co-decision – whether to require the substitution of substances that interfere with the hormone system (endocrine disruptors)
		Jun	June 2013 (after 6 years) – Deadline for registration of chemicals produced/imported in quantities between 100 and 1,000 tonnes per year


			2014 (after 7 years) - General review under EU co-decision – whether a Chemicals Safety Report (CSR) should be submitted for substances between 1-10 tonnes.




		Jun	June 2018 (after 11 years) – registration of low volume chemicals between 1- 100 tonnes per year


			2019 (after 12 years) - General review under EU co-decision to decide whether or not to entitle consumers to information about further substances present in articles including e.g. allergens. Currently the duty to inform consumers upon request about substances in articles is limited to those, which may cause cancer, alter genes or are toxic to reproduction. 2019 (after 12 years) – The EU comitology committees will review the tests for reproductive toxicity

Getting to REACH



		Jun	1 June 2007 - REACH enters into force in all 27 Member States

		Nov / Dec	30 Nov 2006 - Negotiators from the Council, the Parliament and the Commission formulate a weak REACH agreement 13 Dec 2006 - 529 EU Parliamentarians vote in favour of the weak REACH agreement 18 Dec 2006 - EU Environment ministers approve the REACH agreement – REACH is adopted 30 Dec 2006 - the agreed REACH text is published in the official journal of the EU and thereby REACH becomes law
		Nov	Second vote in the EU Parliament
		Oct	Vote in environment committee of the European Parliament
		June	Transfer of the Common Council Position to the European Parliament
		Dec	Common position by the Council
		Nov	First vote in the European Parliament. Parliament votes to phase out the most hazardous chemicals but allows huge knowledge gaps on safety for thousands of chemicals.
		April	Industry study (KPMG) finds REACH will not lead to withdrawal of important chemicals from the market due to cost of registration and concludes REACH is NOT bad for business.
		Jan	Joint public hearing in the EU Parliament: over 1000 delegates from industry and non-governmental organisations attend.
		Oct	The Dutch presidency workshop analyses 36 impact assessments and concludes the new legislation will have limited costs for business with benefits for health and environment.


		March	KPMG (consultants) are commissioned by UNICE and CEFIC (industry organisations) to undertake further impact assessments of REACH. NGOs cannot endorse this study due to major deficiencies in both the methodology and transparency of the process.
		Dec Oct - Dec Oct	Guido Sacconi, Rapporteur of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament presents his report on REACH, but there is no vote in the EU Parliament due to delaying tactics by conservative parliamentarians. Discussions only restart after the election of the new parliament in autumn 2004. Council Ad Hoc Working Group (national experts) start to analyse the proposal in order to develop a council position on REACH, aiming to finish the analysis by the end of 2005. The Commission presents its final proposal, supplemented by the External Impact Assessment on REACH. The proposal aims to get safety data for 30.000 chemicals of the 100.000 that are available on the EU market, but two thirds will have so little data that it will not be possible to classify those chemicals.
		May - July	Following exhaustive internal and external debates, the European Commission publishes parts of its draft legislation on the Internet for public consultation over an eight-week period. Having received more than 6,000 reactions, the Commission bows to industry pressure and weakens its draft legislation, taking out safety information requirements for more than 20.000 chemicals.
		May - July








		Feb	The Commission publishes its White Paper 'Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy' which is widely acknowledged as presenting the structure needed to obtain the necessary changes (see also COM (2001) 88).






		June	The Environmental Council takes a step towards a fundamental review of the EU chemicals policy by giving a clear mandate to the European Commission.



		April	At the informal Environmental Council meeting in Chester: UK, Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden submit a document outlining the current lack of action and the need for a completely new policy on chemicals.

We are here:
The arrow on the timeline indicates the next event in REACH legislation progress to adoption.

EU & REACH: Key Facts

In February 2001 the EU Commission adopted a White Paper on the strategy for a future policy on chemicals. Both the EU Council and European Parliament requested even stricter rules than those proposed by the EU Commission.

An Internet consultation between May - July 2003 resulted in weakening of an earlier draft of the legislation due to industry lobbying.

In October 2003 the EU Commission adopted a proposal for new chemical legislation. This proposal has been moving through the legislative process ever since. Progress has been slowed by the powerful voice of the global chemicals industry protecting their own interests.

The split of responsibility for chemicals legislation between a wide range of bodies and policy areas - particularly in the EU Commission between the Directorate General (DG) for Environment and DG Enterprise - is in large part responsible for the current failure of chemicals management.

Council votes are swayed by the nation holding the Presidency, which is rotated every 6 months. Greece and Italy responded to the chemical industry's lobby against restrictive legislation and moved the discussion from the Environment Council (environment ministers) to the Competitiveness Council (industry ministers). Since then the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the UK have had discussions in both councils.

Final resolutions on legislation (in the second reading, expected 2006) must be carried by an absolute majority of all MEPs. MEPs are influenced by the reporting of Committees and party groups, but they also listen to public opinion from their constituents.

So public pressure on MEPs can reverse bias towards weak legislation from some Presidencies, party lines, and Committees who are sympathetic to the chemical industry lobby.

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