Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-11-Speech-1-074"
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"en.20061211.14.1-074"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, in the days since we reached our understanding with the Council – which was made possible in part by the Commission’s support – I have been wondering what might be an appropriate comparison for this long journey, which, for me, has lasted three and a half years, and which has brought us to this point. To answer that question, I have had to resort to my passion for mountain climbing: perhaps the most fitting comparison is to say that we have climbed a high mountain – probably, and without any exaggeration, an 8 000-metre peak in the Himalayas.
This is a complex issue, which cannot be resolved by rushing it through: REACH is so complicated that it would be wrong to expect to solve all the problems at the approval stage. The important thing now is to start implementing it: we have provided for a number of what we might call self-regulating mechanisms and deadlines, which will allow for adjustments to be made as work progresses, on the basis of the practical experience that we have gained. We have been improving the balance at all stages in this procedure: I could mention the solutions we have found for the problems of small enterprises, or the strengthened health and environmental protection measures, particularly as regards the risks to which workers are exposed.
Overall, I think we can be very pleased with this end product. I have noticed that my fellow Members in the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance and the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left have tabled a package of amendments, which are on the whole admirable and are very similar to those that I tabled during the negotiations with the Council and the Commission in order to arrive at the point where we are now.
How useful are these amendments? Where will they take us? Which peak will we be able to reach in an unlikely conciliation procedure? We all know what the real alternatives are: either to adopt the compromise package that we have set out, improving on the common position, or in fact to accept the common position. Let us be quite open about this: maybe that would be better. These are the real alternatives that we have, and I am sure that Parliament will make the right choice in Wednesday’s vote.
Mr President, my speech today means that my work is done. Even the voting list will be short – there is not a lot to do, just two pages, which is a record for REACH, considering that some 5 000 amendments were examined at first reading.
My work therefore finishes here, and it just remains for me to thank all those who, in their many different ways, have taken part in this Himalayan expedition. A great many have taken part: I have known six presidencies and countless committee chairmen and commissioners, and I was always there as the lead climber, even though there were times when someone tried to pull me down instead of acting as my safety person. Even so, we have got this far.
Joking apart, I am grateful to everyone, from the chairman of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, Mr Florenz, to all the shadow rapporteurs, including those who have voiced their disagreement with this result, to the presidencies, especially the Finnish Presidency, which has really been a crucial interlocutor, to the Commission, which may not have imparted any great bursts of speed but which played a decisive role in the final stages to achieve this result. Above all, however, I thank the staff who have worked with me: two Italian ladies – one of whom is my assistant, Sabina Magnano – who have played a very important role in this project. If I could change the name of the report, I would name it after them and all those who have worked with me.
I have never been that high and I doubt if I ever will, because I am only a moderate climber, but I do know what happens when you reach the top: at that point the exhaustion and the dangers you have experienced no longer count, nor, perhaps, does the disappointment you often feel when you get to the top and the view is restricted because of mist. It has happened to me so many times: I get up there and I cannot see a thing! Nevertheless, the sense of achievement is enormous just the same.
It is important to be quite clear about two things: the first is to realise whether you have actually got to the top, and the second is to prepare properly for the descent, which is often no easier than the climb up.
As the lead climber, I should like to give my opinion on these two points. Have we actually got to the top? I really think we have. We have done so with the package of chapters that we agreed upon in the final stage of the negotiations: duty of care; animal welfare and, above all, the compulsory promotion of alternatives to animal testing; the agency; communication of information; and adjustment to the new interinstitutional agreement on comitology, thus safeguarding Parliament’s role. We have had to give up one thing, which is extending the chemical safety report to small tonnages; that, however, was not a victim of this ascent, but rather an early retreat to base camp, since we have established a review clause that may possibly allow us to reintroduce this obligation in seven years’ time, once appropriate checks have been performed along the whole supply chain.
The reason why I can say that we have reached the top is that, with this agreement, we have above all arrived at a successful solution to that most controversial topic, the purpose of REACH, which is to regulate the substances of highest concern by means of the authorisation procedure.
To check whether we really have got to the top, we have to remember where we started from: a deep and very distant valley. The Commission’s original proposal in fact stated that all substances subject to authorisation could be authorised on the basis of the principle of adequate control. We have come a long way since then. The Council’s common position, which was positively influenced by Parliament, had already cut back the range of these substances, and then, with the 30 November agreement, we took a further step forwards and reduced the number of substances that could be approved under this quicker and easier procedure and, on top of that, we included all substances – even those that will be authorised on the basis of adequate control – in a substitution process. Where an alternative exists, a substitution plan must necessarily be submitted; if no alternatives exist at the time of authorisation, the company must in all cases declare the lines of research and development that it intends to pursue.
On this basis, therefore, the duration of the authorisation will be established case by case, and it must be duly justified by the Commission where an alternative exists. If an alternative should appear during the term of the authorisation, the obligation to submit a substitution plan will come into effect.
What I should like to emphasise is that the Commission will make its decisions case by case on the basis of the agency’s report, which must take account of the opinions of the Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis and the Committee for Risk Assessment, which must also take account of third-party contributions. It is therefore a highly transparent process that does not depend solely on the applicant’s own declarations.
As for the descent from the summit, I think it is important to choose the best route, since the same grade of climbing difficulty may be a much greater challenge on the way down than on the ascent. What I mean by this metaphor is that we should adopt the compromise that we have reached, because in that way we can have the regulation published by the end of the year and thus meet the deadline for starting the process to implement REACH by 1 June 2007."@en1
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