Liberal and Democrat MEPs call on Commissioner Roswall to follow through on PFAS-ban

This weekend in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Jessika Roswall, the European Commissioner responsible for Environment, Water Resilience and a Competitive Circular Economy, called for a phasing-out of forever chemicals known as PFAS. Liberal MEPs now want her to follow through by announcing concrete plans next week.

The trio, MEPs Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (NL), Martin Hojsík (SK) and Sigrid Friis (DK), point out that the European Parliament’s Environment, Climate and Food Safety Committee will gather on Monday with the Commissioner present. According to them, it could be a ‘perfect opportunity’ to announce the long-awaited and citizen-demanded phasing out PFAS, followed by concrete measures that could be approved by the European Commission on Wednesday.

Part of those concrete measures could be investing in cleaner and safer alternatives and putting a hard deadline on the use of forever chemicals. The Commissioner admits that it has repeatedly been proven how harmful they are to people and the environment.

13 reasons why: In her op-ed, Roswall stated numerous reasons for the phasing out of PFAS. She said the problems associated with it are ‘extensive and well-documented’. She also pointed out that clean-up is costly, that companies need clear rules and that the issue has become a matter of ‘trust and predictability’. According to the liberals in the European Parliament, she can’t list ’13 reasons why’, referring to the popular series, while simultaneously waiting for yet another investigation when action on the most immediate affected consumer sectors could be taken now.