On 28 March 2007, a joint commission was established by the Industrial Association of Lombardy (Assolombarda) and trade unions in Milan, aimed at addressing the challenges of the new European REACH regulation for the chemicals industry. The commission consists of 12 members and its remit involves liaison, control, updating and training duties.
Context
The Lombardy region in Italy has the highest number of chemical industries in the country, ranking as the second chemical region in Europe. As a result, the implementation of the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation is of particular concern to chemical operators in this region. In response, the Industrial Association of Lombardy (Associazione degli Industriali della Lombardia, Assolombarda) met with representatives of the trade unions in Milan, in order to prepare for the potential repercussions that the regulation’s implementation could have on Lombardy’s chemical production industry. The trade unions involved included the General Confederation of Italian Workers (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, Cgil), the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, Cisl) and the Union of Italian Workers (Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Uil).
REACH regulation
In December 2006, the European Parliament and European Council adopted a new regulation on the use of chemical substances. The so-called REACH regulation will replace all existing regulations in the EU Member States.
REACH shifts the duties of control regarding the circulation and marketing of chemical substances from the national level to the more centralised European level. Accordingly, an agency is to be set up, with its headquarters in Helsinki in southern Finland, with which it will be necessary to register all chemical preparations and substances manufactured and imported in Europe in quantities of more than one tonne per year. The agency will be in charge of evaluating these products in relation to their physical, chemical, toxicological and eco-toxicological characteristics. Moreover, it will be charged with authorising or prohibiting their use on the basis of their impact on human life and on the environment.
As it is an EU regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (1.77Mb PDF)), REACH is directly applicable in all EU Member States and does not need to be transposed into national legislation; rather, it will come into effect directly on 1 June 2007. As part of its complete implementation, a plan has been put in place consisting of various phases, which will last a total of 11 years. REACH will apply both to enterprises producing chemical substances and to those that use these substances – so-called ‘downstream’ industries.
Impact of REACH on Italian chemical industry
In the last 20 years, the Italian chemical industry has changed greatly. The larger chemical industries have disappeared, breaking up into numerous smaller enterprises with fewer than 100 employees. As part of this shift from the large-scale production of chemical products, these smaller Italian chemical enterprises have concentrated more on the specialisation of ‘niche products’; the latter refer to specialised products which target a specific market segment where there is very little competition. This strategy has enabled the Italian chemical industry to emerge, over the years, as one of the world leaders in chemical production.
Nonetheless, it is precisely this small and medium-sized structure which could expose the Italian chemical industry to the greatest risks in the process of conforming to the REACH provisions.
For the large multinational chemical companies, the REACH registration process is relatively simple. In contrast, several types of problems may arise for the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly if they are ‘downstream’ users of chemical substances. Problems like the following could emerge.
- A number of chemical substances that are considered commercially inconvenient could disappear from the market; this would in turn force the downstream companies to make structural changes to their products or production processes.
- The same substances could be obtained on the market at much higher prices; this would in turn modify the financial situations of small enterprises.
- SMEs could be greatly hindered by the lack of laboratories certified for performing the tests required by the REACH regulation.
Joint commission
On 28 March 2007, Assolombarda, Cgil, Cisl and Uil set up a joint commission, which was officially launched on 3 April. The commission will aid the step-by-step implementation of the EU regulation in Italy’s chemical industry.
The commission consists of 12 persons – six industry representatives and six trade union representatives. Its duties will involve:
- maintaining contacts with the federations most concerned: on the employer side, this includes the National Federation of the Chemical Industry (Federazione Nazionale dell’Industria Chimica, Federchimica); on the trade union side, it mainly concerns the Italian Chemicals, Energy and Manufacturing Federation (Federazione Italiana Lavoratori Chimici Energia Manifatture, Filcem-Cgil), affiliated to Cgil, the Energy, Chemicals and Allied Industries Federation (Federazione Energia Moda, Chimica e Affini, Femca-Cisl), affiliated to Cisl, and the Italian Chemicals, Energy and Manufacturing Union (Unione Italiana Lavoratori Chimica Energia Manifatturiero, Uilcem-Uil), affiliated to Uil; the commission also aims to maintain contacts with the national trade union confederations;
- overseeing the implementation of the REACH regulation;
- collaborating in defining the objectives and duties of the national authority for the management of the regulation’s implementation, which has yet to be defined;
- adhering to the substance registration process.
The joint commission will also be responsible for updating enterprises and workers on the European and national initiatives regarding the regulation’s implementation. Moreover, it will promote information and training initiatives for company prevention and protection supervisors and for worker safety representatives; both the supervisors and safety representatives are envisaged by the law for the purpose of contributing to an improvement of the work environment.
Reactions
According to the Chair of Assolombarda, Diana Bracco, who is also a chemical entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical sector, the agreement aims to ‘safeguard and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises, at the same time stimulating the commitment to modernisation’.
The Milanese Secretaries of Cgil, Cisl and Uil – respectively, Onorio Rosati, Fulvio Giacomassi and Walter Galbusera – point out that the agreement offers the possibility to intervene in a specific manner ‘on the information and training of all individuals working in the enterprise’.
Vilma Rinolfi, Cesos