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EU Member State chemicals policies

Although many aspects of chemicals policy are controlled at an EU level, individual Member States do still have powers in many areas, for example in taxation, assistance to industry, and in softer policy options such as stakeholder processes and voluntary agreements.

In some areas where policy is made at a European level, Member States may go further with their own regulation, particularly where the regulation refers to something within a Member State (e.g. factory emissions or worker health) rather than something that is traded (like a chemical).

In addition, many Member States have invested considerable resources in developing their own chemicals policies and in influencing the development of chemicals policy at a European level.

The Member States whose polices are described on this page are Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.

• Some older chemical-related publications from EU Member States are available on the archive page.

Denmark

The Danish Government has a long history of work on chemicals policy.

A range of chemical resources are available on the Danish Ministry of Environment web pages, including:

• A study using QSAR methods to create an advisory list for self-classifying more than 20,000 substances: see results.
• Investigations of chemicals in various consumer products.
• The Danish List of undesirable substances 2004, a list of substances that businesses are advised to avoid using if possible.

Germany

Germany has the largest chemical industry in Europe, and has a long history of regulation and research on chemicals.

Useful resources include:

• The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety chemicals policy web pages.
• The German Federal Environment Agency, who have a number of chemical-related studies on their web site, including a study of dangerous substances in construction products.
• For a general overview of German chemicals management, see the National Profile of German Chemicals Management, published in 2005 as part of the UNITAR process for assembling national profiles of chemicals management.

Key German stakeholders

• The NGO BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) has a chemicals campaign, and the International Chemicals Secretariat has a German section in their web site.
• The VCI is the German chemical industry association

Netherlands

The Dutch Government has done a very substantial amount of working examining new approaches to chemicals regulation, in particular how to accelerate action on those chemicals with the worst properties. This work has been done as part of the Strategy on Management of Substances (SOMs), and has included a number of major reports looking at how such a system could be implemented.

The Dutch are now focusing their attention on the discussions on finalising REACH.

Sweden

Sweden has a very long history of activism in chemicals policy, including being the first country to ban PCBs.

Chemicals feature in Sweden's Environmental Quality Objectives, which include an overall goal that, one generation from now, the major environmental problems currently facing us will have been solved:

"The environment must be free from man-made or extracted compounds and metals that represent a threat to human health or biological diversity." (see KEMI web site for more details)

Useful resources include:

• The Swedish Ministry for Sustainable Development's chemicals page
• The web site of the Swedish chemicals inspectorate KEMI, which runs chemicals regulation in Sweden
• The Prio tool, devised by KEMI as " a guide for decision-making that can be used in setting risk reduction priorities"

Swedish Stakeholders

• Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
• International Chemicals Secretariat

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has a substantial chemical industry, and was one of the first European countries to initiate a review of its chemical policies, in 1997, resulting in a strategy which was published in 1999. One element of this strategy was the creation of a 'Stakeholder Forum' in which issues relating to chemicals policy could be discussed - see the forum's web site for more details.

The UK Department of the Environment, Food and Regional Affairs (DEFRA) chemicals web site collates the UK Government's work on chemicals, including a REACH web page, which links to key UK Government position papers on REACH.

The Environment Agency, which regulates industrial pollution in England and Wales and also works on EU Existing Chemicals risk assessments, has produced its own chemicals strategy.

Key UK Stakeholders

• The UK environmental NGOs WWF, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace each have a large number of materials relating to chemicals policy on their web sites.
• The UK Chemical Industry Association has a collection of REACH-related documents on its web site.
• The BCDTA, who represent chemical distributors, have a number of REACH policy papers on their site.
• The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, which advises the UK government, produced a substantial report on "The long term effects of chemicals in the environment", which also makes recommendations for chemicals policies.