37 NGO have recently issued a joint statement calling EU leadership to deliver a high level of protection for people’s health and the environment.
Industrial chemicals are everywhere, also in our bodies. While enabling manufacturing processes, services, and products in modern economies, many are hazardous and pose serious risks to human health, fundamental rights and the environment. Harmful chemicals remain in widespread use, even within our homes and workplaces. Europe is facing a chemical pollution crisis that contributes to severe diseases and results in billions of Euros in health, environmental, and societal costs every year.
EU leaders have both the mandate and the responsibility to protect people and the environment. They committed to doing so through the EU’s Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), which outlined 80+ actions to improve protections against the risks posed by hazardous chemicals while supporting EU competitiveness and the transition towards a circular economy. These actions were strongly supported by the European Parliament and the European Council, and, at the time, welcomed by industry stakeholders.
The CSS clearly identified the need to modernise EU chemicals legislation (REACH and CLP) as well as to significantly improve its implementation and enforcement. Progress initially followed: the revision of classification and labelling rules (CLP Regulation), the publication of a Restrictions Roadmap, and coordinated enforcement projects signalled a move in the right direction.
However, two years into her second mandate, Mrs von der Leyen’s Commission is backtracking on its promises. Instead of strengthening protection, it is advancing a deregulatory agenda driven by industry demands and misleadingly framed as “simplification”.
The regulations on the classification and labelling of chemical products as well as the regulation on cosmetics, which were revised in 2024 are now under threat. The Commission’s proposed Chemicals Omnibus would, if approved, facilitate and extend the use of hazardous chemicals in cosmetics, including of chemicals that cause cancer or harm fertility. It would slow down the development of safer alternatives and significantly undermine consumers’ and workers’ access to information on hazardous chemicals. Vulnerable groups such as children, women and pregnant people would be particularly at risk.
At the same time, the EU’s plan to ban the most hazardous chemicals, the Restrictions Roadmap, adopted in 2022, has stalled. Chemicals like bisphenols, phthalates, PVC, known for decades to harm human health and the environment, are still awaiting for the Commission to initiate regulatory action. Many others, such as skin sensitisers, have been sitting on the Commission’s desk for over five years without a decision.
Health and environmental protections, as well as the competitive advantages offered by REACH to the EU economy are now threatened by the chemical industry’s demands. These include calls to facilitate continued use of hazardous chemicals, delay regulatory procedures or avoid updating hazard information of chemicals such as endocrine disruptors.
Adopted in 2006, REACH is the backbone of EU chemicals safety policy. It established value chain information requirements, improved knowledge on chemical hazards, prioritised the regulation of the most hazardous chemicals, and strengthened authorities’ capacity to control chemical risks. Together with the CLP Regulation, REACH positioned the EU as a global frontrunner in chemicals regulation and inspired similar frameworks worldwide. However, 20 years of lax implementation have allowed known harmful chemicals to remain on the market for decades. This has delayed and blocked the development and uptake of safer alternatives, while hindering the transition to a circular economy. At the same time, the EU is falling behind in chemical innovation: other regions are advancing chemicals’ policies that address polymers, combined exposure (cocktail effects) or PFAS-free alternatives.
This loss of leadership does not benefit European industry, workers, or consumers. On the contrary, strong chemical regulation is a proven driver of innovation and long-term EU competitiveness.
Therefore, an ambitious implementation, enforcement and modernisation of the EU chemicals framework in line with 21st century science is urgently needed to deliver the promised level of protection against hazardous chemicals. REACH must ensure that pollution crises such as PFAS never happen again and contribute to key EU health priorities, such as Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and enable a toxic free circular economy.
Chemical safety is an EU-responsibility. Europeans need decision makers to finally deliver on REACH’s primary objective: a high level of protection of human health and the environment. Without further delay and without compromise at the expense of our health.