Analysis of the costs and benefits of the new EU chemicals Policy

The debate around the new EU chemicals regulation is often focused on short-term costs that companies will incur on account of REACH. Above all the reservations of industry associations— given the stagnation of European economy over the last several years—have led to a significant weakening of the earlier Commission draft. Despite this fact, the controversies surrounding the chemicals policy have not declined. Instead they continue to be fed by industry studies using dubious methodologies which depict REACH as anti-business and overly bureaucratic.