Technical and scientific support to the Commission's impact assessment for the revision of the regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures : executive summary, final report, annexes

The European Green Deal sets the Commission's commitment to tackling environmental issues, including pollution. As part of the Commission's ambition to move towards a toxic-free environment, in October 2020 the European Commission presented the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS) that develops a new long-term vision for the EU chemicals policy. To complete this ambitious goal, the CSS brings forward a set of initiatives aiming at contributing to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Beyond the CSS, multiple other political commitments have been made to support the EU chemical industry and all downstream sectors in moving towards more sustainable growth. The CSS recognises that Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP) is, along with Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the cornerstone of the EU chemical regulatory framework, working in synergy with other legislative instruments on occupational health and safety, product safety and environment protection. It calls for the strengthening of both REACH and CLP Regulations. The CLP Regulation was reviewed by the Commission as part of the Regulatory Fitness and Performance (REFIT) programme. The fitness check of chemicals legislation other than REACH was informed by several studies conducted in the period 2015-2019. The evaluation concluded that, while the objectives of the chemicals legislative framework continue to be relevant and provide added value at the EU level, 'there are gaps, overlaps and inconsistencies, as well as implementation issues, that affect the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and coherence of the framework'. Further investigations have identified the following three issues, which result in a sub-optimal protection of human health and the environment from hazardous chemical substances and mixtures in the internal market: 1. Hazardous chemicals are not comprehensively identified and classified; 2. The communication on the health and environmental hazards of chemicals is not optimal; and 3. There is a high level of incompliance, in particular of online sales of chemicals and poison centre notifications.