On the last day of the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU, the member states, at the level of the Committee of Permanent Representatives – COREPER I, approved a legislative proposal that preserves the previous approach to classifying essential oils, the Bulgarian Ministry of Health reported.
In relation to the European Commission’s proposed Regulation amending the legislation on the classification, labeling and packaging of substances and mixtures, the Council accepted the arguments of Bulgaria and seven other member states about the difficulties in adopting the proposed approach and included a review clause requiring new analyzes by Commission to be presented after 4 years.
The position in defense of the producers of essential oil crops in Bulgaria was presented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food, Kiril Vatev, at the meeting of the Council on Agriculture and Fisheries, which took place on June 26 and 27 in Luxembourg. He then stated that Bulgaria insists on maintaining the current approach to the classification of essential oils in order to continue the traditional cultivation of the crops in the EU from which they are extracted and to preserve the incomes of farmers and seasonal workers employed in the sector. Minister Vatev insisted that essential oils be excluded from the concept of complex substances, so that they continue to be classified under the current rules as substances and not as mixtures.
The decision of the Council of the EU is a positive development for producers of natural ingredients for perfumery and cosmetics. Negotiations with the European Parliament to agree on the final text of the regulation are still pending.
Minister Vatev commented that the decision reached was an achievement of the entire government and personally of Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov. The Prime Minister categorically defended Bulgarian rose oil and other natural essential oils at the meeting of the European Council. During the debate on the topic “Economy”, he pointed out a significant omission in the draft Regulation on the Classification, Labeling and Packaging of Chemicals (CLP), which places essential oils in the column of dangerous chemical mixtures. “When we discuss whether something is harmful, we have to we look not only at what the substance is, but also what is its concentration. It depends on her whether the substance is dangerous or not. In the text of the regulation, which is being presented, the word “concentration” is missing, Academician Nikolay Denkov, who is a world-renowned scientist in the field of chemistry and physical chemistry, explained to journalists in Brussels.
In front of the other leaders, the Bulgarian Prime Minister defined the European regulation being prepared as an abuse of science. He specifically asked the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to refine the text because “it is not as scientific as it should be”, and he received her understanding.
