In October and November, the ZVO held numerous discussions with MEPs and employees of the European Parliament as well as representatives of the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (GROW). Lukas Hanstein, Head of Policy at the ZVO, and Dr. Malte-Matthias Zimmer, Head of Environmental and Chemicals Policy, met with Jens Geier (SPD), the office of Andreas Glück (FDP), Prof. Dr. Andrea Wechsler (CDU) and the team of Greek MEP Dimitris Tsiodras, who is expected to take on the role of REACH rapporteur again.
Focus: REACH revision and functional PFAS applications
The main topic was the upcoming REACH revision, which will be one of the most important EU regulatory projects in the coming months. The ZVO emphasized the role of surface technology as a key technology for industrial value chains and warned against regulation that is far removed from practice.
The association highlighted various issues: the rapidly growing bureaucratic burden in environmental and chemicals policy as well as the PFAS ban, which threatens the existence of the industry in its current form. The inadequate design of the planned environmental omnibus and the general increase in documentation and verification obligations for SMEs were also discussed. At the same time, the ZVO proposed solutions - including approaches for differentiated regulation of functional PFAS applications and for reducing reporting obligations under REACH and CLP.
Constructive signals from Parliament and the Commission
The feedback from the political discussion partners was predominantly positive. Both the Parliament and the Commission signaled their willingness to include the industry's perspectives to a greater extent. The ZVO has announced that it will continue on the path it has taken. The coming months will be characterized by intensive work on the REACH revision, further exchange formats with the EU Commission and important committee decisions.