L

REGIONAL ACTIVITIES

European Parliament New Initiatives

The Committee on Energy and Research submitted to the Parliament a motion for a resolution, together with explanatory statement, on European nuclear safety policy (see page 72).

For the motion for a resolution together with explanatory statement on the consolidation of precautionary. measures concerning CFCs in the en- vironment (see page 71). [ ] Courtesy; E~nvlronment V iews

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

F.R. Germany Chemicals Control

The High Level Meeting of the OECD Chemicals Group took place in Paris on 15 November. 1982. On that occasion, Gfinter Hartkopf, State Sec- retary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, presented a statement giving his country's views on the internatio- nal harmonization of chemicals con- trol.

In it he said that his government welcomed the results that have been achieved so far by the OECD, espe- cially the decision on the mutual ac- ceptance of data, which takes into account the requirements of environ- mental and health protection as well as the avoidance of technical trade barri- ers. It appreciates the studies on eco- nomic aspects as an essential contribu- tion to the understanding of the eco- nomic background of the measures taken to harmonize chemicals control. It felt that normative requirements are interfering with the market system and with the entrepreneur's freedom of choice and may under certain circum- stances entrain a lowering of his re- sponsibility. This in turn may misdi- rect the forces of the market system. It therefore proposes increasingly to con- sider market economy approaches that

also call upon the entrepreneur's own responsibility and the competitive forces of the market in addition to regulator3, action. To the extent these approaches are designed appropriate- ly, they might result in solutions the implementation of which would re- quire much less expenditure by indus- try and administration. The entrepre- neur will then try to find on his own a solution which is tailored to his specif- ic situation.

There are still large gaps of know- ledge as regards the impact of chemi- cals legislation on innovation, espe- cially in smaller enterprises, both un- der methodological and empirical as- pects. Since new chemical substances may have a decisive effect on the economic development of chemical industry as well as on consumers, this question should be continued to be dealt with in the framework of the OECD. The experience gained with the new chemicals legislation in Japan, the United States and the member countries of the European Community should be evaluated, and the resulting information should be taken into ac- count in all further activities.

In the Federal Republic much im-

portance is attached to the problem of existing substances. This was already emphasized on the occasion of the First High-Level Meeting and was also underlined by our repeated committ- ment in this field, such as the organi- zation of the Berlin Workshop in June 1981 and the adoption of the role of the Lead Country in Project 4 "'Selec- tion criteria for environmental pur- poses" and of a co-pilot country in project 3 "Selection criteria for health purposes".

It is especially this task that shows the forward direction of environmental policy in line with the principle of anticipatory action which was adopted during the OECD meeting of the Envi- ronment Committee at ministerial lev- el in May 1979 in the OECD Declara- tion of Anticipatory Environmental Policies.

For the practical implementation of the Ordinance on Existing Chemicals they employ the classification of the Berlin Workshop: - S u b s t a n c e c l a s s 1 covering several

hundred substances that have been generally recognized as hazardous substances and for which adequate assessment data are available and

0378-777X/83/$3.00 © 1983 North-Holland