Parliament urges the Commission to take regulatory action on EDCs without delay

Today, PAN Europe and the civil society applaud the European Parliament for standing up for the European citizens and adopting a resolution that addresses a long-known concern: daily exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) may cause harm to ourselves, our children, the environment and all its species.

The resolution, which was adopted with a great majority by the European Parliament (447 votes in favour out of a total 502), urges the Commission to take action and set strict targets to phase out and gradually eliminate human, animal and environmental exposure to EDCs.

The Parliament decided to stand firm on the need for a high level of protection from EDCs and calls on the Commission to make legislative proposals no later than June 2020. It also calls for a broader horizontal regulation of EDCs, including known and suspected ones, proper identification of EDCs using adequate testing and latest scientific knowledge, consideration of the effects from chemical mixtures and implementation of human, animal and environmental biomonitoring.    

This parliamentary demand for action is a response to Commission’s complete lack of commitment in its communication “Towards a comprehensive European Union framework on endocrine disruptors”. In line with the 7th Environmental Protection Programme European, we were all expecting for an updated Strategy, with specific goals to phase out the use of EDCs and promote non-toxic alternatives. Instead, the Commission launched a plan to do a fitness check on the various ED policies.

PAN Europe highlights that a fitness check at this moment, not only delays further phasing out EDCs from our daily lives, but it also totally premature since the EU policies on EDCs have hardly been implemented.

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