The committee adopted the report by Inger SCHÖRLING (Greens/EFA, S) on the Commission's white paper. It supported the Commission's plan to establish a single system for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of both existing and new chemicals but called for a more proactive, preventive approach. The report said that a key aim of the new policy should be to phase out substances as soon as they were shown to be of "very high concern" unless their use and their hazardous properties were shown to be essential and there was no safer alternative.
It wanted the range of chemicals to be subject to authorisation to include persistent and bio-accumulative substances, endocrine disrupters and substances that were carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic to reproduction. It also wanted to include imports into the EU and chemicals present in manufactured goods. It said that substances deemed to be of very high concern should be banned from consumer products by 2012 and products should be labelled to warn consumers of dangerous substances contained in them.
The committee also said that chemicals in volumes of less than one tonne should be included in the new regime and registered, under a simplified procedure, by 2012 unless they were shown, as a result of screening carried out before 2008, to be of potential concern, in which case they must be subject to full registration. The committee was keen for the effects of chemicals on children's health to be taken into account and also wanted animal testing banned where recognised alternative tests were available. Lastly, it urged the Commission to draft a regulation to establish the new chemicals policy as soon as possible.�