EU proposal raises transparency issue in chemical regulation talks

Member state suggestions to exclude industry and NGOs from taking part in important discussions on changes to the EU's Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation have been labelled as "regressive" by one trade body. The member state comments come in separate papers published after the July meeting of the Competent Authorities for REACH and CLP (Caracal). At the meeting the European Commission circulated a paper on the future of Caracal, outlining draft revisions on the rules of procedure. Several member states suggested that discussions on draft delegated acts under the CLP – used to establish measures of a technical nature – should be held behind closed doors. This has drawn strong criticism from the Downstream Users of Chemicals Co-ordination Group (Ducc). In a paper published after the Caracal meeting, it argues that the proposed change would "greatly reduce transparency and virtually exclude industry from the future development of the CLP Regulation".