ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 focuses on the legal discourse concerning the early status of nanosubstances in REACH. The analysis seeks to contextualise such discourse on two levels.
First, it presents a brief introduction to the emergence and evolution of EU environmental law, where chemicals risk regulation belongs. Attention is drawn to the (constitutional) significance of choosing the appropriate legal basis for environmental measures and on how this affects the powers of the EU institutions and, particularly, that of MSs, to enact more stringent environmental measures.
Second, a detailed analysis of the EU chemicals policy in the pre-REACH period is presented in order to understand why and how the REACH reform came about. Further, the chapter elaborates on why the REACH negotiations failed to address nanomaterials and how what would now appear as very relevant nano-specific norms, fell out of the final text of REACH. An introduction to the ECHA’s main prerogatives under REACH is provided.
Given the increasing role of REACH as a global standard-setter, the chapter concludes with two examples of third countries’ relation to REACH: post-Brexit UK and pre-membership Turkey, and the potential implications for nanosubstances’ regulation in legislation in these countries.
