The ministerial conference entitled “Chemical Products: Better protection of health and the environment” was held on 11 and 12 May in Paris under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Protecting human and environmental health and preserving natural environments were at the heart of the discussions, with the aim of outlining ambitious shared objectives as part of the EU’s “zero pollution” goal for 2050.
Priority projects
The participants to this conference worked to list the initiatives to prioritise in order to achieve the ambitious objective set for 2050 by the EU’s “zero pollution” strategy for chemical products. In order to create an environment free from toxic substances, the following objectives have been set out:
• Take better account of chemical products’ impact on biodiversity in the risk assessment process
• Based on the same principle as the IPCC, establish a group of scientific experts on chemicals, pollution and waste, in order to support countries’ decision-making in the international context
• Take the most dangerous chemical substances off the market as quickly as possible
• Adapt control policies to new market trends, in particular e-commerce, drawing on innovative methods and tools such as artificial intelligence
• Strengthen links between European and regional and local levels
• Re-evaluate the organisation of trade in light of these intra-European developments (banning the export of substances prohibited on the EU market to countries outside the EU, reinforcing mirror clauses for imports to Europe)
European partnership for the assessment of risks from chemicals
This French Presidency event also provided the opportunity to launch the European Partnership for the Assessment of …
