Corporate lobbying could well hijack the European Commission’s proposal to restrict PFAS – or ‘forever chemicals’. What is more worrisome is that there are indications that the Commission is planning to deliver what industry wants, warns a report.
- As the industry-friendly voices within the Commission gain ascendancy, the ambition to regulate PFAS has been reduced to achieving “clarity,” according to the political guidelines for the second (2024–29) von der Leyen Commission.
- In her mission letter from the Commission President, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall, who leads on chemicals regulation, has been told that she should work with principles such as “sustainability, competitiveness, security and safety considerations” in mind, which implies some difficult trade-offs.
THE REPORT: The Corporate Europe Observatory’s report—Chemical reaction: Inside the corporate fight against the EU’s PFAS restriction—says that industry lobbies from Europe and across the world are targetting the European Commission to protect their PFAS substances, products, equipment, and profits, despite the overwhelming evidence of the disastrous human health and environmental consequences of the pollution that they cause.
- The report shows how the European Commission’s initial ambition to tackle PFAS and other chemical pollution has been downgraded in recent years, with industry arguments being adopted at the highest levels in the Commission.
- The wish to support the chemicals sector and other intensive energy users since the 2022–23 energy price hikes has overtaken the Commission’s previous ambition to hold the PFAS industry accountable for the toxic pollution crisis.
- Not only does the Commission not have any special measures in place to protect itself from this corporate influence, in some cases it is offering firm encouragement to PFAS lobbyists and reassuring indications about its future decision-making.
- The most prolific corporate lobby on the PFAS restriction is the major PFAS producer Chemours (a DuPont spin-off company) with more high-level meetings on this topic with the Commission than any other group. It has more than doubled its declared lobby expenditure.
- Apart from analysing the biggest and most active corporate lobbies on PFAS, and their lobby tactics, the report explores how some at the highest levels of the Commission are actively encouraging corporate lobbies and already offering reassuring indications to them about future decision-making.
A survey of 15 Commission directorates-general has revealed that there are no special measures in place to protect its decision-making on the proposed universal PFAS restriction.
- Instead, the Commission largely focused its responses to the survey on justifying its contacts with industry.
- Furthermore, it is clear that much of the industry lobbying on the proposed PFAS restriction is based on misleading or hyperbolic arguments. Too often officials and politicians are seen to parrot these. Overall, this corporate lobbying and the Commission’s willingness to entertain it risks undermining the scientific process being led by the European Chemicals Agency, in accordance with the REACH regulation, to assess the proposal to restrict PFAS.
- The weakening of political support for a strong PFAS restriction within the second Commission led by President Ursula von der Leyen, and the growing political support enjoyed by the PFAS industry, especially in Germany, mean that the universal PFAS restriction is at serious risk of corporate capture.
