EU CHEMICALS POLICY 2030
BUILDING ON THE PAST, MOVING TO THE FUTURE
The European Commission and its organising partner, the Ministry for Environment and Food of Denmark, held a high-level conference on 27 and 28 June 2019 attended by over 300 stakeholders, including more than 50 speakers and contributors.
The main objectives were to engage the different stakeholder groups in discussions on recent and possible future developments of EU chemicals policy, in order to further improve the protection of human health and the environment in line with the Sustainable Development Agenda, as well as to support the good functioning of the internal market and to enhance the competitiveness and innovation of EU industry.
The discussions focused on six main topics:
- Promoting green and sustainable chemistry through innovation, alternative technologies and processes and right skills.
- Chemicals and the circular economy: safe management of chemicals in products and waste andcontributions to resource efficiency.
- Improving the regulatory framework for risk assessment and risk management of hazardous chemicals.
- Knowledge building, monitoring and early warning of emerging risks.
- Smarter communication, better protection and lower costs: meeting citizens’ concerns, completing the EU Single Market and ensuring a level playing field.
- The EU chemicals policy and global challenges: sustainability, innovation, competitiveness.
These topics were addressed in moderated panel discussions by panellists representing a wide range of stakeholders - from the chemicals industry, downstream users, authorities, academia, and non-government organisations. In addition, there were six participatory thematic sessions for 80 to 100 participants each, from all the different stakeholder groups, focusing on the above topics in world café style debates.
Participants were asked to come up with a vision for what the EU should have achieved by 2030, specific objectives that the EU should set to reach the 2030 vision, and actions to be taken to reach the vision and achieve the objectives for the given topic. Participants then voted for 1 vision, 2 objectives and 2 actions each. The outcomes of these sessions were presented on Day 2, followed by moderated panel discussions and a conclusion by the European Commission.
ETRA attended the event and contributed to on-going discussions. For more infomation and a copy of the report, please contact the ETRA office