Today, UK and EU environmental and public health organisations have joined forces to urge that the reset in UK-EU relations should include closer cooperation on the environment, ahead of the UK-EU Summit on 19thMay.
Alongside 27 other organisations, CHEM Trust has written to UK and EU leaders asking that reset negotiations make meaningful progress on climate, nature and the environment. Both parties have a common interest in protecting their shared environment and climate from the triple threat of climate change, nature loss, and pollution, which can be resolved better together and for our mutual benefit.
The UK Government should align with EU chemical safety laws and other higher EU product standards.
Firstly, the letter calls on the UK Government to align with higher EU product standards and specifically its chemical safety laws, and to seek closer cooperation with and associate membership of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).
The UK has been sharply falling behind EU chemical safety laws[i] and many other areas of environmental regulation post-Brexit (bar a few exceptions), threatening to undermine a fair level playing field and higher EU environmental ambitions. This may result not only in the dumping of products that no longer meet higher EU standards on the UK market but also in the potential for the UK to manufacture chemicals and products containing chemicals that the EU has restricted as being too harmful.
CHEM Trust has been urging the UK Government to include chemicals in the scope of the UK-EU reset and set out a commitment in the revised 2025 Environmental Improvement Plan to catch up with and match or exceed EU chemical regulatory protections, including a delivery plan for achieving this. This would result in better protection for public and workers’ health and for the environment, by pegging these to the highest protections globally, and reduce spiralling public costs of clean-up from the UK’s failure to regulate pollution at source. It would also provide greater regulatory certainty for businesses and could help unlock a more ambitious trade reset.
Other key asks
Among other asks, the letter calls for increased regulatory cooperation and convergence in a range of additional areas of environmental policy, from joining forces to tackle commodity-driven deforestation andaligning circular economy rules. It also asks that reset negotiations include UK reengagement with European scientific bodies, including the European Chemical Agency and European Environment Agency, to foster more research and scientific cooperation on environmental pressures across the European continent.
Francessca Carlsson, European Environmental Bureau and Member of the EU Domestic Advisory Group said:
The Summit will be a historic moment for the EU and UK to reset their relations and to cooperate on their shared ambitions and values. Environmental degradation, the climate crisis and pollution are common existential threats that require common solutions.
Chloe Alexander, Senior Campaigner, CHEM Trust said:
The decision of the last UK government to reject Theresa May’s proposals for a ‘common rule book’ with the EU, came not only at the expense of a closer trading relationship with the EU, but also of our environmental protections.
A commitment to catch up and match new EU regulatory protections from harmful chemicals is urgently needed to get our regulation back onto a safer and more secure footing, and to prevent the long-term costs to our health, environment and economy from failure to regulate pollution at source. It would also help with forging closer environmental collaboration and cooperation that could help trigger a race to the top, as well as a more ambitious trade reset.
Further information
The full letter can be read here.
Footnotes
[i] The UK has still not adopted a single restriction on a harmful substance compared to 11 in the EU – such as on intentionally-added microplastics – with big groups of harmful substances such as PFAS targeted for bans in the pipeline. CHEM Trust sets out the differences between UK and EU regulatory protections in this table, with further details in this briefing.
