Key Insights

  • European Union deregulation efforts are filtering down into the chemical sphere.
  • The timeline for the delayed revision of the flagship Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) law remains uncertain.
  • The European Commission wants less burden for industry, but some groups warn that environmental, health, and other protections could decrease.

“We all agree we need simplification, we need deregulation,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said at the Copenhagen Competitiveness Summit on Oct. 1, and the European Union’s cut-red-tape agenda looks set to plow through the bloc’s chemical legislation in 2026.

As the EU’s main policymaking organ, the commission is on track to adopt several omnibus packages aimed at tweaking established environmental laws to make it easier for companies to thrive, innovate, and ultimately, boost the bloc’s straggling economy.

One proposal considers scrapping periodic reviews of pesticide active ingredients in order to free up administrative resources for the assessment of new substances and products.

Another proposal would roll back recently adopted labeling requirements under the revised Classification, Labelling, and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures (CLP) regulation after an industry outcry over the cost of redesigning product labels. Changes to a blanket ban on substances with carcinogenic, mutagenic, or reprotoxic properties in cosmetic products are also on the cards. Regulators are considering allowing the use of such chemicals in products for use on the skin if a safety assessment proves the substances are a risk to humans only if ingested or inhaled.

The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) says the proposals will allow chemical firms more flexibility, support investments in Europe, and reinforce industrial resilience. “The priority is smarter, more efficient implementation,” Steven Van de Broeck, Cefic’s executive director for product stewardship, says in an email.

Because they are not subject to the commission’s usual scrutiny processes, the omnibus proposals are progressing speedily by EU standards. Whether 2026 will finally see the revision of the flagship Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) chemical safety regulation is much less clear. A package of sweeping changes, such as including the currently exempted and 80,000-substance-strong group of polymers under the law’s registration rules, has been delayed since 2022.

In February, the commission committed to releasing the proposal at the end of 2025. But in September, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB)—an independent body that advises on major legislative evaluations—threw a wrench into the timeline when it rejected the REACH revision impact assessment. The commission must revise the assessment report and get the RSB’s green light before it can publish the legislative proposal.

In a letter dated Nov. 20, Dutch environment minister Thierry Aartsen informed the Dutch parliament that the REACH revision “will likely only be published in the second half of 2026.”

Asked to confirm the timing for the release of a legislative proposal to update the REACH regulation, commission spokesperson Rüya Perincek said in an email merely that it will “continue to work on targeted simplification measures, which should ensure easier implementation and less burden, while ensuring the protection of environment and human health.”

The final revision text might look rather different from the one proposed in 2022, as economic pressures and a shift to the political right in the 2024 European Parliament election have changed the commission’s priorities.

“Looking at the recent developments in the institutions, the level of protection of citizens could in fact be decreased instead of increased,” says Theresa Kjell, head of policy at the International Chemical Secretariat (ChemSec). “The pace and lack of substance behind the flood of deregulation in other pieces of legislation in the EU shows us that anything is possible.”

Chemical & Engineering News

ISSN 0009-2347

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