A switch to assessing groups of similar chemicals meant the European Chemicals Agency was able to screen last year just 220 potentially hazardous substances used at high volume in Europe, but non-compliance by chemicals firms continues to hamper progress, the EU regulator says in a new report

The EU’s circular economy action plan should be put at the heart of the economic recovery in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crisis, environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told MEPs on Monday

EU health and food safety commissioner Stella Kyriakidis has told MEPs a plan for sustainable food production to be published next week will include firm targets to ‘curb the use and risk’ of chemical pesticides and fertilisers

Member states have been urged to reject a proposal to authorise the carcinogenic substance chromium trioxide at a REACH committee meeting this week, with NGOs claiming the approval request was incomplete

Regulatory failure means potentially unsafe pesticides are coming to market in Europe, a group of scientists have warned in a peer reviewed paper that uses the case of glyphosate to reveal ‘systemic’ abuses in implementing EU law