There have been many studies and a great deal of analysis on the development of REACH, the EU’s great policy on the governance of chemicals, but the question still remains; how has the original idea of ​​the project been transformed into one that creates an everyday struggle for so many businesses inside and outside the region?

Most reasonable businessmen would agree that it is necessary to establish rules to protect both industry professionals and the general public from hazardous substances, if not least to protect the planet and everything else that lives on it.

Based on these ideals, officials created laws in a system that they themselves are part of. They applied further state administration and supervisory bodies, added a dash of executive power, which in turn was instinctively followed by judicial authority.  Such are the many layers of modern governance that support processes like REACH.

These processes are complex, because the rules are complex, bringing with them a demand for so-called ‘sophisticated services’ to help comply with the new legislation. Companies are then faced with, on the one hand, increased overheads stemming from in-house compliance of legislation and on the other hand, the cost of services from companies whose existence and profit are based on this same legislation.

Captains of the chemical industry, who always keep a keen eye on profit, calculate the economic costs of laws, and can see in it a lost competitive edge in the EU’s chemical industry at a global level. The result is embarrassing for politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels and creates a basic question ‘quo vadis EU’? Where is the EU heading?

One can only hope that there will be a positive end to this situation, such that over time this system will hopefully spread beyond EU borders, to create a safer planet, but with a level playing field for business.

And this might well happen. Already we have seen the implementation of new laws in South Korea, K-REACH, that may promise a fairer future for both global business and the globe.

So perhaps the introduction of the REACH policy is just a short term problem for a long term solution. And that could work, right?

Your Spotchemi team