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Contents

INTRODUCTION (G. SIMON)

1. DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF CHEMICALS IN HUNGARY AND OTHER NEW MEMBER STATES (G. SIMON)

2. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN HUNGARY AND OTHER NEW MEMBER STATES
a. Position of the Chemical Industry in the Central and Eastern European Countries (with Special Focus on Hungary) (J. Pál)
b. The EU Accession's Impact on the Chemical Industries of the Visegrád Four Countries (T. Dragos)
c. Multinational Companies in Hungary (T. Dragos)

3. CHEMICALS AND US
a. What Is in our Blood? (M. Prommer)
b. What Is in our Head? (M. Prommer)
c. Bordered section: Chemicals in the Education (G. Simon)

4. REACH AND THE NEW MEMBER STATES
a. Development of the Legal Environment in Hungary (T. Dragos)
b. Problems Identified in Hungary (T. Dragos)
c. Effect / Impact of REACH in the New Member States (G. Simon)
d. WWF's View on the Further Work on Impact Assessment: New Member States Study (Justin Wilkes)
e. Impact of REACH on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (T. Dragos)
f. Summary of the Hungarian Impact Assessment (T. Dragos)
g. Benefits of REACH (G. Simon)

5. OTHER CHEMICALS
a. Pesticide Use in Hungary (G. Simon)
b. Insect Control and Insecticides in Hungary and in the New Member States (G. Simon)
c. About Food Additives (J. Pál)

6. SUMMARY

7.REFERENCES

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Introduction

Following the EU accession, industries - rapidly making their way into the hands of Western owners - have promptly found the way to reinforce their interests in the Union's legislative and decision-making bodies.Moreover, it is not uncommon for Hungarian citizens to hear that international industrial stakeholders referring to their interests when attempting to modify rules of law. The aim of this publication is to present the interests of Hungary and the other seven ex-communist new EU member states, with respect to chemicals and their regulation from a perspective of an environmental NGO. In the lobby and decision-making of Brussels it is very important that our countries' true interests are represented and that our particular customs and practices - often different from those of the Western countries - are taken into consideration when adopting regulations. During the short period of the EU accession, industrial enterprises of the new member states had to adapt to a large number of environmental rules which had been created by the EU and its predecessor organs in the course of several decades. Naturally, there are a lot of complaints from business concerning the tragic impacts of the EU's chemicals policy (REACH) which is currently under preparation. It is not our intention to bring Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) into a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis multinational corporations which they are unable to catch up with; therefore, we attach great importance to the fact that REACH will indeed bring benefits to the countries. This is to say that, it will bring about the maximum of environmental and health benefits without destroying the industries.

This publication will also show that the Brussels decision-makers need to take into account the differences which arise from the particular development of these countries. For instance, in the Western part of the European Union, citizens often don't realise the influence that some multinational corporations and the USA have gained in new member states and in the countries waiting for the accession. This can be equally attributed to the effect of the suddenly liberalized markets and to the compensation of the unfounded fear from Russia.

As a consequence of the unexpected capitalist transformation, the once strong trade unions - at that time held by the communist parties - have lost much of their power and popularity. Today, they have by far less influence than before, and their power to affect the public opinion is more limited than that of the Western European counterparts. This trend is further reinforced by the fact that certain multinational companies make their activities practically impossible. As a result, it is not rare that workers' interests are not represented in companies employing hundreds or thousands of people. With the exception of Malta and Cyprus, the ten new member states joining the EU in 2004 had belonged to the former Eastern Bloc. Industrial development in these countries had a number of common features. The industry, so including the chemicals manufacturing and use, was centrally controlled, which also meant considerable inflexibility and lack of innovation presented. This naturally posed serious problems. In large agricultural cooperatives, for example, substantial quantities of chlorinated pesticides, already qualified as POP, were used. However, due to the professional way in which they were used as well as continuous investigation of chemical residues, the products usually only contained chemical residues in quantities remaining under the limit values.

It is also a particular characteristic of the countries of the former Soviet sphere of influence that the communist successor parties (the current socialist and social democratic parties) present a more positive stance towards the industry than the right wing parties - due to the fact that business owners are closer to them because of their previous position.

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