Yesterday, Member States adopted a negotiation mandate on the revision of the Toys safety directive, which fails to fully protect children from harmful chemicals.
Following the very ambitious position adopted by the European Parliament earlier this year, the Council’s mandate didn’t rise to the challenge.
Member States have not included a group ban on bisphenols and the ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS, that was adopted by the Parliament. Nor have they tightened derogations from the generic ban – this procedure ensures that chemicals are immediately banned from toys once they are found to be harmful.
The Council also didn’t follow Parliament‘s position by deciding that only classified chemicals will be restricted under the generic bans, meaning that substances will have to go first through a classification process under another EU law (Classification, Labeling and Packaging Regulation). This diverges from the generic ban procedure under the main EU chemicals safety law, REACH, which covers chemicals ‘meeting the criteria’ and allows in principle for chemicals to be restricted if they are self-classified by industry or if data demonstrates their harm.
The Council retained the Commission’s proposal to remove endocrine disruptors from toys, although it specified that only endocrine disruptors that impact on human health should be covered.
CHEM Trust urges co-legislators to fix these deficiencies in the Council’s mandate and to find an ambitious deal during trilogues, which should be as close as possible to Parliament’s position. Trilogues are expected to start as early as the fourth quarter of 2024.
