Sweden Threatens to Sue EU Over Endocrine Disruptor Inaction

Sweden's environment ministry is threatening to sue the European Commission in the European Court of Justice over alleged foot-dragging on endocrine disruptors.

Environment minister Lena Ek said she is seeking the lawsuit to force the European regulatory authority to "deliver the scientific criteria so we can start moving toward a poison-free society."

Ek blamed the delays on the "European chemical lobby," which she claimed is putting commissioners under pressure.

A spokesman for environment commissioner Janez Potocnik, however, told Swedish media the delays were due to the "complexity of the issue, the evolving science and the diverging views existing among scientists and among stakeholders."

The Commission had been due to establish criteria for identifying endocrine disruptors in numerous products by December 2013.  

Scandinavian member states have long been pushing the EU to ban certain suspected endocrine disruptors. At the beginning of 2013, Sweden banned bisphenol A (BPA) from baby food packaging and called for an EU-wide ban. In mid-2012, Denmark said it planned to discontinue use of the low molecular weight phthalate compounds DEHP, DBP, DIBP and BBP.