Brussels, 15 November 2018 - The chemical industry in the UK and EU-27 have welcomed an agreed text on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and a future trading relationship.  Ensuring continued participation in REACH through the European Chemicals Agency is the best outcome for the chemical industry in both the UK and the Europe as well as the health and environment agenda across the continent.  Marco Mensink, Cefic’s Director General : “Our position remains unchanged - the industry needs regulatory certainty on the arrangements between the EU and the UK for the period after March 29 and the sooner these arrangements are agreed on, the better the industry can prepare and the less disruption it will cause for trade”.  Steve Elliott said “We will continue to work with MPs and members of the House of Lords to ensure there is a UK-EU deal for our country to leave the European Union and trade with member states in the future with minimum disruption to the chemical sector”.

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Brussels 15 November 2018 -   Researcher Dr. David Pamies, a Postdoc in the Department of Physiology at Lausanne University, Switzerland was awarded the €100,000 LRI Innovative Science award, one of Europe’s largest research grants for early career scientists, at the award ceremony of Cefic’s 20th Annual Long-Range Initiative (LRI) Workshop in Brussels on November 14, 2018.

Brussels 12 November 2018 -  Cefic has welcomed the Commission Communication on Endocrine Disruptors, published last week. Significant progress in understanding and regulating endocrine disruptors (EDs) has been made over the past decades. Today the EU is recognised as having one of the most stringent and advanced legislations on endocrine disruptors in the world.   Said Marco Mensink, Cefic’s Director General: Cefic welcomes the proposal for a Fitness Check to make sure that our approach to dealing with endocrine disruptors is coherent, consistent and science-based. As science on endocrine disruption is still developing, investing more into research on endocrine disruption and improving testing methods for EDs is rightfully identified as one of the focus areas for the Commission. The chemical industry looks forward to contributing to the upcoming Fitness Check proposed by the European Commission”.

Brussels 26 October 2018 - With speakers first vice-president Frans Timmermans of the EU Commission and Boyan Slat of The Ocean Clean Up on stage, Cefic managed to organise quite a strong programme complementing CEOs from LyondellBasell and Dow, and Shell's Executive Vice-President, to speak about circular economy and the future of plastic. Frans Timmermans said the European chemicals industry's attitude to measures to promote a circular economy had shifted dramatically in its favour in recent years.  He used to see a fair bit of push-back from the industry a few years ago but he now sees more push-back from the institutions on this. Industry appears to be on board and willing to be part of the solution. Boyan Slat reported on progress made with his first system, now being deployed in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Already well tested in the North Sea, the system is now up and running in the Great Pacific Ocean, with first results expected in the coming weeks. Slat intends installing another 69 systems to halve the garbage patch in five years' time. Another hot topic, Brexit, was debated by a panel consisting of ING’s Chief Economist Carsten Brzeski, ECHA’s Director of Risk Management Jack de Bruijn, UK Dept of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s Director Infrastructure and Materials Niall Mackenzie and Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs, King’s College of London and Director of the UK in a changing Europe. Though a lively debate on necessities and challenges, all agreed that, as things stand after the EU Council discussions, not much can be done – besides hoping for a deal. The Chemical Convention closed with a dinner in the Gallery of Honour in the Rijksmuseum, where the guests enjoyed dinner while contemplating the Nachtwacht by Rembrandt. The dinner was hosted by Royal VNCI with guest speakers Stientje van Veldhoven, State Secretary of Infrastructure and Water Management, Udo Kock, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam and Feike Sybesma, CEO DSM. The evening would not have been possible without our sponsors Shell, Nouryon, Sabic, Eastman, LyondelBassell and DSM. Above picture: Frans Timmermans (first vice-president of the EU Commission) Above from left to right: Boyan Slat (The Ocean Clean Up), Stephen Sackur (BBC) Above from left to right: Stephen Sackur (BBC), Jim Fitterling (Dow), Bob Patel (LyondellBasell), Graham van't Hoff (Shell) Above from left to right:  Jack de Bruijn (ECHA’s Director of Risk Management), Niall Mackenzie (UK Dept of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s Director Infrastructure and Materials), Anand Menon (Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs, King’s College of London and Director of the UK in a changing Europe) - Carsten Brzeski (ING’s Chief Economist), Stephen Sackur (BBC) Photo credit: Frederik Beyens  

Amsterdam, 25 October 2018 - At its annual General Assembly, held on 25 October, Cefic announced the winners of this year’s European Responsible Care Awards.  The awards recognise excellence in improving health, safety and environmental standards in the chemical industry. The 2018 winners are:  BASF received the Chemical Safety Award for its successful multi-year stakeholder engagement programme to demonstrate the safety of nanomaterials to regulators and NGOs; Reckhaus GmbH & Co won the Environmental Responsibility Award for its innovative project Insect Respect, which ensures ecological compensation for the insects killed by a biocide; The Sustainability Workplace Award went to Versalis SpA  with the development of a safety perception and behavioural model to improve the employee safety culture and ethics at Versalis’ facilities; essenscia, the Belgian Federation for Chemistry and Life Sciences industries carried off the National Associations Award for their capacity-building project to help Belgian SMEs comply with the EU chemicals legislation, including support in meeting the last REACH registration deadline.   Marco Mensink, Cefic Director General said: “Responsible Care is an important industry programme and we are proud to see that the industry continuously works on the safety, health and environmental performance of our industry.  Though not selected as winners, the jury gave a special mention to: The Association of the Chemical Industry of Czech Republic for their project aimed at engaging with young people to encourage them to study chemistry and join the chemical industry; The UK Chemical Industries Association for revising the Responsible Care Guiding Principles for its members. Notes for the editor   Responsible Care is a global initiative by the chemical industry to improve health and environmental performance, enhance safety, and to communicate with stakeholders about products and processes. Cefic’s role is to advance the Responsible Care programme in Europe, promoting and ensuring consistency of implementation by national member federations and member companies. Cefic has held the European Responsible Care Awards since 2005 to recognise outstanding approaches to Responsible Care and Sustainable Development. The Responsible Care Award jury consists of the following people: Emma Argutyan, Director General of the European Chemical Employers Group, ECEG John Baker, ICIS Chemical Business Simon Minett, Managing Director, Challoch Energy Sylvain Clemendot, Total Refining (2017 RC Award winner) To learn more about this year’s winners watch this video [embedded content]

Amsterdam, 26 October 2018 - Daniele Ferrari, CEO of Versalis (Eni) and President of PlasticsEurope was elected President of Cefic, effective immediately, at Cefic’s annual General Assembly. He succeeds Hariolf Kottmann, Chairman of the Board of Clariant, who has held this post since October 2016. Marco Mensink, Cefic’s Director General: “I am pleased to welcome Daniele as our new President. With the challenges of Brexit, upcoming EU elections and transition to a more low-carbon economy, the industry needs a strong and capable leader like Daniele. At the same time we thank Hariolf Kottmann for his outstanding leadership over the past two years. Under his presidency we restructured Cefic, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) and secured China’s membership in the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA)”. Daniele Ferrari, Cefic’s new President said:  “The EU chemical industry is already playing a key role in addressing the world’s biggest challenges by developing technologies to mitigate climate change, use resources more efficiently and facilitate recycling. My ambition is to promote a European environment in which the chemical industry can grow and support the transition to a sustainable society, towards the circular economic model. At the same time, we will continue to help the European chemical industry to attract investments and thrive at a global level. Chemistry will help us move forward towards a stronger European economy.” Daniele Ferrari is Chief Executive Officer of Versalis and Chairman of Matrìca, a joint venture focusing on renewable chemistry, positions he has held since 2011. A thirty-year career in the chemical industry has seen Daniele take on managerial assignments in Italy, the UK, Belgium and the US, working for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and Huntsman Corporation. Since June 2017 Daniele has also been President of PlasticsEurope, a pan-European association representing plastics manufacturers. He will combine the role of President of Cefic and PlasticsEurope for a month before handing over to his successor in PlasticsEurope (yet to be appointed).  He is also Vice-President for Europe of the Italian Chemical Association (Federchimica) and serves as a non-executive director of Venator Materials and Huntsman Corporation.

Brussels, 24 October 2018 - The EU chemical industry is committed to ensure all substances used on the EU market are safe for people and the environment and comply with all relevant EU rules. The safety of the substances we produce is our license to operate. Marco Mensink, Cefic Director General: "Our companies have made a tremendous effort to compile all registration dossiers on time for the 2018 deadline. A huge amount of data on more than 20,000 substances that are on the European market has been provided, while ensuring that no supply chain disruptions occurred. Over 2 billion EUR has been invested to ensure compliance with REACH." Thanks to REACH, Europe has the most comprehensive database of chemicals in the world.The European Commission has recently made an independent review of the implementation of REACH. It has concluded that much progress has been made in the last 10 years – but also that the work is not finished and in some areas needs to go faster. The REACH review has made clear recommendations. The chemical industry therefore together with the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) and national authorities continues to identify data gaps and put in place the measures needed to fill those gaps. This is consistent with the focus of the next phase of REACH implementation, which is dossier evaluation. One of the objectives of REACH is to minimise unnecessary animal testing and use alternative methods as much as possible. While compiling dossiers, it appeared that there were various interpretations on how to use these methods, which resulted in some of the mentioned data gaps.  The industry is working with ECHA and regulators in all EU member states on developing a common approach to dealing with alternative methods.

Brussels, 16 October 2018 - The chemical industry and trade unions today agreed on the future framework to further protect EU workers from the risks associated with exposure to substances toxic to reproduction at the workplace. In a joint declaration signed today, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), industriAll European Trade Union, the European Chemical Employers Group (ECEG) and the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) call on the European Commission to strengthen the current system of protection of workers’ reproductive health. "Adopting the proposed approach at EU level will benefit both companies and workers across all EU countries," said Marco Mensink, Director General of Cefic. "Maintaining high standards of occupational health and safety is of paramount importance for the chemical industry,” added Emma Argutyan, Director General of ECEG. "This agreement is important because it shows that employers and unions are working together to reduce chemical exposure at work and improve working conditions in all sectors," declared Luc Triangle, General-Secretary of industriAll Europe. "This agreement is in line with the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and proves that social dialogue is alive and kicking in Europe and delivering protection for workers’ reproductive health," added Esther Lynch, Confederal Secretary of the ETUC. This joint declaration provides the group’s input into the ongoing debate on revising legal requirements for exposure to reprotoxic substances under the EU Chemical Agents Directive (CAD) and the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD). If not managed properly, reprotoxic substances may be responsible for fertility and/or reproductive problems in exposed workers. Contact information For more information please contact: Maria Linkova-Nijs, Media Relations Manager, Cefic, +32 2 676 73 98 or [email protected] Emma Argutyan, Director General, ECEG, +32 2 290 89 80 or [email protected] Erica Lee, press officer, industriAll Europe, +32 2 226 00 61 or [email protected] Julian Scola, Head of Press & Communications, ETUC, +32 486 117 394 or [email protected] About Cefic Cefic, the European Chemical Industry Council, founded in 1972, is the voice of large, medium and small chemical companies in Europe, which provide 1.2 million jobs and account for 17% of world chemicals production. About ECEG The European Chemical Employers Group (ECEG) represents the employers’ interests of the chemical, pharmaceutical, rubber and plastics industries in Europe with approximately 3.3 million direct employees in more than 94.000 enterprises. As a Brussels-based social affairs organisation it is a recognised social partner and a consultation body of the European Institutions and other stakeholders. About indutriAll Europe IndustriAll European Trade Union represents the voice of 7 million working men and women across supply chains in manufacturing, mining and energy sectors across Europe. About ETUC The EuropeanTrade Union Confederation is the voice of workers and represents 45 million members from 90 trade union organisations in 38 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union Federations.

Brussels, 16 October 2018 - Ahead of the Brexit summit on 17 October, Cefic, CHEM Trust, the European Environment Bureau (EEB) and the UK Chemical Industries Association (CIA) have today published an Open Letter to all EU Heads of State in the Financial Times. We urge the UK and EU-27 governments to allow the UK to remain within (and bound by) REACH and participate in the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) post-Brexit. Doing this will help maintain high standards of protection of citizens and environment, and ensure business continuity for companies. 

Brussels, 12 October 2018 - We agree with the findings of the study done by German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) that both industry and authorities need to increase their efforts in improving the quality of registration dossiers.   To accelerate the effective implementation of REACH Cefic and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) have recently signed a joint statement committing to improving the scientific assessment of substances and further enhancing safety information and its communication across the supply chain.  Cefic has been engaging with ECHA and regulators in all EU member states to exchange practical experience and agree on a common approach and tools to fill in potential data gaps in dossiers. We are already working on recommendations that will provide registrants with more certainty and guidance on how to complete their dossiers.