Several organisations have asked the European Commission and EU Member States to prioritise action on tightening controls of imports of both, chemicals and goods, including online marketplaces, ensure new restrictions are 100 per cent enforceable and improve coordination and sharing of data between regulators, private sector and civil society can play a bigger role in supporting enforcement actions, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) said in a press release.

There is sufficient evidence that the vast majority of goods containing banned or restricted chemicals come from outside of the EU. This is a matter of consumer safety as many of these products are purchased online by individuals. The cases of non-compliance reported through the EU’s ‘Safety Gate’ are only the tip of the iceberg and many more cases often go unnoticed. Non-compliant products also reduce the competitiveness of EU domestic producers and distributors, who invested millions into compliance with the EU chemicals law.

In addition, as long as banned chemicals continue to enter the internal market through non-compliant imports and then enter the European recycling streams, ambitious EU circular economy objectives may not be achieved.

Ensuring new restrictions means enforcement authorities need to have harmonised and standardised control test methods, the lab capacity, the budget and resources to check whether representative samples contain restricted chemicals or not. Such harmonised and standardised analytical methods need to be available before a restriction is adopted, otherwise market surveillance authorities and value chains cannot perform control checks. The chemical industry stands ready to contribute to the development of such analytical methods.

Moreover, an increasing number of restrictions have such a broad scope that it is difficult, if not impossible, to enforce them. For example, the upcoming restriction on skin sensitisers may impose checks on imported clothes against up to a thousand different skin sensitisers, whilst it is known that the market surveillance authorities do not have the resources and capacity to do that.  With the move to generic approaches to risk management announced in the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, future restrictions are likely to cover hundreds of substances in many different uses. It means that we urgently need new solutions to check compliance.

A proper enforcement of the existing regulatory measures is equally important as it would offer clarity and will be beneficial for industry, in particular for SMEs. Enforcement efforts should also prioritise the economic operators that already have a history of non-compliance. All the mechanisms that are already in place can and should be used more efficiently to improve enforcement.

Creating a toolkit of more efficient enforcement measures would make an enormous difference to public health and the environment. Doubling down on enforcement would also reassure those who comply with EU legislation and invest in sustainable chemistry and sustainable products that their competitiveness will remain safeguarded. In addition, effective enforcement will improve consumer trust in EU law.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)