The European Commission is preparing to rewrite Europe's chemical safety laws through delegated acts - a procedural maneuver that would sidestep full Parliamentary scrutiny and hand the chemicals industry its biggest regulatory victory in years.
The move involves changes to REACH, the EU's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation, which governs how approximately 30,000 chemical substances are tested and approved for use across the bloc. REACH has long been considered the gold standard for chemical safety globally, copied by regulators from Seoul to São Paulo.
But instead of proposing amendments through the ordinary legislative procedure - where the European Parliament and Council of Ministers would debate, amend, and vote on changes - the Commission plans to use delegated acts under Article 290 of the EU Treaty. Translation from Brussels-speak: they can make technical changes to existing laws without MEPs getting a full say.
"This is not a technical tweak," said Bas Eickhout, a Green MEP and member of the Parliament's Environment Committee, according to sources familiar with his position. "These are fundamental changes to how we assess chemical risks, and they're trying to ram them through without proper democratic debate."
The chemicals industry has been lobbying for years to ease what it calls "overly burdensome" testing requirements under REACH. Industry groups argue that current rules require expensive animal testing and slow down innovation. Environmental groups counter that weakening standards would expose European citizens to poorly-tested substances.
Here's why this matters beyond Brussels: REACH sets the global benchmark. When the EU changes how it regulates chemicals, multinational corporations adjust their formulas worldwide. A weaker EU standard doesn't just affect European consumers - it reshapes what ends up in products from Manila to Mexico City.
The Commission's legal argument rests on the claim that these changes are merely updates to implementing provisions, which falls within their delegated powers. But critics point out that decisions about what level of toxicity testing is required aren't procedural minutiae - they're core policy choices that determine public health protections.
