A grip on hazardous substances - advisory report
On 11 March of this year, the Council presented the Dutch version of its advisory report ‘A Grip on hazardous substances’ to Stientje van Veldhoven, the Dutch Minister for the Environment and Housing. The main conclusion of the report is that current policy on hazardous substances is not sufficient to adequately control the risks to people and the physical environment. The use and number of hazardous substances is increasing, as is the reuse of products containing such substances. New policy is needed to gain more control over these issues.
A firmer grip on hazardous substance issues cannot be achieved through national policy alone, but also requires changes in European Union policy. Therefore, the Council will set out to discuss its findings and recommendations on a European level, with stakeholders from industry, other Member State governments, NGOs and scientists. What are the possibilities and pitfalls with respect to a joint effort to tackle the issues? How could EU-level collaboration contribute to the ambitions of the European Green Deal? In its Green Deal, the European Commission formulated the ambition to have a toxic-free environment with better monitoring, reporting, prevention and remediation of pollution.
For the full advisory report (in English) and the Press Release, click here.
More information
For more information about our advisory report and the on-line debate session, please contact project leader Yvette Oostendorp by email: yvette.oostendorp@rli.nl or telephone: +31 (0)6 2702 0642.