Four years ago, Europe set course on the world’s most far-reaching plan to shield people and nature from daily contact with hazardous chemicals. That plan is way behind schedule, a new study, Restrictions Roadblock has found.
Unlawful delays by the European Commission have led to around 100,000 tonnes of chemicals contaminating food systems, drinking water, homes and elsewhere, the study calculated.
The Commission launched the chemical ‘roadmap’ on 25 April 2022, pledging to crack down on thousands of the “most harmful substances”, those with proven carcinogenic, reprotoxic, allergenic and other serious hazards, by restricting their use in a wide range of products, from baby nappies and toys to furniture and textiles. Progress would be “transparent and timely”, the roadmap stated.
Brussels was responding to growing concern among scientists about synthetic chemical pollution, which some say is breaching planetary boundaries. The roadmap pledged to effectively ban flame retardants, which are frequently linked to cancer; bisphenols, widely used in plastics but which disrupt human hormones; PVC, the least recyclable plastic that contains large amounts of toxic additives; and all PFAS, the toxic ‘forever chemicals’ building up in the blood of almost all humans.
But nearly two-thirds of the roadmap’s 22 chemical files are effectively frozen, the review by environmental organizations ClientEarth and the European Environmental Bureau found. The files have either made no progress at all since 2022 or are months or years behind the roadmap schedule.
Commission itself is the main culprit
The main roadblock to the Commission’s roadmap is the Commission itself, the review found. It failed to make any progress at all on a third of the 22 files. The Commission, which is responsible for upholding European law, broke a three-month “without delay” legal deadline for another third of the files, instead taking two years on average and nearly four years in the worst case.
At least 98,440 tonnes of chemical pollution in Europe is attributable to unlawful Commission delays from just six of the roadmap files, the report calculated. The consequences are widespread and serious as these chemicals are responsible for child IQ loss, allergies, cancer, infertility, disease, and death in humans and other organisms.
Little or no official explanation for the delays has been offered, the environmental organizations say. The Commission has been prioritizing the interests of major polluters over health and the environment, launching a wave of deregulation during President Ursula von der Leyen’s second term. She supported the Antwerp Declaration, devised by the European chemical industry and backed by many of the bloc’s biggest polluters. Prioritizing the interests of major polluters over human health and the environment breaks several areas of EU law, the report states.
EEB Policy Officer, Christine Hermann, said: “The Commission’s inaction is contributing to widespread pollution and harm to both citizens and the environment. We urge the European leadership to put protection first and accelerate the EU plan to get rid of these highly harmful chemicals.”
ClientEarth lawyer Hélène Duguy said: “Once again, we are forced to draw the same troubling conclusion as we did before: the Commission is rolling back on its own promises, and by doing so, it’s leaving itself exposed to legal challenge. The Commission needs to stop kicking the can down the road and fulfill its legal duty to protect people and the environment.”
