GERMAN OFFICIAL REACTIONS TO REACH DEMARCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 001806 SIPDIS SIPDIS COMMERCE FOR DON WRIGHT, CABLE CODE 4211/MAC/OEU E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/16 TAGS: ETRD ECON BEXP GM SUBJECT: GERMAN OFFICIAL REACTIONS TO REACH DEMARCHE REF: A. USDOC 2311 ¶B. BERLIN 1401 ¶C. 2005 BERLIN 4130 Classified By: Robert F. Cekuta for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Discussions with working-level officials at Germany's Chancellery, Ministry of Economics and Ministry of Environment revealed continued support for the EU Council's December 13, 2005 version of REACH, in contrast to meetings U.S. officials had with State Minister Hildegard Mueller at the Chancellery in May (reftel B). Both ministries and Chancellery mentioned the German government's reluctance to reopen debate on the Registration and Authorization sections of REACH, citing the fragile political alliance in the European Parliament. German officials took on board our points on confidential business information and data sharing and were interested in how data sharing works in the U.S. Officials admitted that REACH will remain a "work in progress," with an intentionally long phase-in process to give affected parties an opportunity to adjust. End Summary -------------- Germany Supports Council Version of REACH -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Dieter Kopp, Head of Division for Chemical Safety, Water Management, and Soil Conservation at the Ministry of Economics and Technology, said Germany continues to support the version of REACH adopted by the European Council last December. He noted the tenuous political agreement achieved at that time between the camp supporting a more environmentally-oriented REACH and advocates of a more economically-minded regulatory system. This fragile alliance has made the German government reluctant to reopen debate on registration and authorization, fearing a complete unraveling of the entire political agreement. Christian Meineke, Head of Division for Chemical Safety at the Ministry of Environment, said Chancellor Merkel held a recent conference call with the German CDU/CSU faction of the EPP Conservatives, telling them Germany would support the adoption of the European Council's Common Position, rather than reopening registration and authorization provisions during the European Parliament's second reading. Meineke thought the U.S. should concentrate its efforts on preventing amendments, which the U.S. views as running counter to its interests, from entering the European Parliament's version of REACH during the second reading, e.g., mandatory substitutions and five-year authorization time limits. ¶3. (C) Officials responsible for REACH at the Chancellory confirmed these remarks about Germany's support of the Council's political agreement. This position, however, ran contrary to what U.S. officials heard from State Minister Hildegard Mueller at the Chancellery in May (reftel B). Berthold Goeke, Division Director of Environment, Conservation and Nuclear Reactor Security, said Chancellor Merkel had taken a particular interest in making REACH more economically friendly when she became Chancellor (reftel C). Officials at both ministries and the Chancellory indicated the Council's December 2005 political agreement on REACH included most of the changes Germany had requested. -------------- Reach Implementation Projects (RIPs) -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Kopp and Meineke said participation during the development of REACH Implementation Projects (RIPs) would be open to interested stakeholders. Kopp noted the European Chemical Industrial Council (CEFIC) already was heavily involved in the RIP process. In terms of document availability, officials at the Economics and Environmental Ministries said all documents related to RIPs are available at the European Chemical Bureau's website. Meineke noted the EU would sponsor a status seminar for RIPs in the fall. -------------- Intellectual Property -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Intellectual property remains a controversial issue in REACH, Kopp and Meineke acknowledged. Kopp said German industry had made its concerns on this point -- similar to those of the U.S. -- known, but they took issue with the argument that sensitive information would be available in the public domain and believed the EU would have proper safeguards to protect this data. He stated the German government supported extending data protection to fifteen BERLIN 00001806 002 OF 002 years as described in Article 25 of the European Parliament's version of REACH. In looking at approaches to data sharing and compensation, officials at the Economics Ministry expressed interest in help from U.S. companies. They would welcome U.S. information on "letters of understanding" and how companies are compensated for data provided based on these letters. Specifically, Kopp would like to see clearer language on data sharing that ensures compensation for the original company that performs the testing. -------------- Authorization -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Officials supported the EU's use of a hazard-based approach to determine which chemicals would be added to the candidate list for eventual inclusion in Annex XIII, but downplayed the significance of this approach. They claimed few chemicals would be put on this list annually. Kopp said the German government shared our concerns with the approval process for substances that fall under the chemical-, company-, use-specific authorization, i.e., Annex XIII. According to Kopp, however, Germany was isolated on this issue, and would take no further action, i.e., propose an amendment, to address these concerns. He thought specific authorizations would most likely be rare occurrences. Germany also supports our position on deleting the five-year maximum time limit on authorizations. Kopp thought the Council's language on this aspect of authorization, which does not contain a five-year maximum time limit, would prevail. -------------- Monomers -------------- ¶6. (SBU) Ministry of Environment officials said the REACH language on monomers was adopted from a current Council Directive on registering monomers in the EU (67/588/EC) and questioned whether using this directive as the legal basis for monomer registration in REACH would actually have a negative effect. Ministry of Economics officials stated they were generally satisfied with the Council's language on monomer registration, arguing again that concerns about registering monomers falls under the larger registration section of REACH and would be difficult to change. (Note: Germany, as Europe's largest producer of monomers, sees the monomer registration requirements as putting chemical exporters to the EU on the same footing as monomer producers in the EU. End Note.) TIMKEN JR