Yorkshire and Humber MEP David Bowe—who is Labour’s European spokesperson on the Environment—will tomorrow (April 6th) join with a Government Minister for a major conference examining how proposed EU legislation will affect the future of the region’s chemical industry.
The conference being staged in Scunthorpe has been organised jointly by North Lincolnshire Council, the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward and the Humber Chemical Focus group and follows on a similar highly-successful event held last year.
David Bowe will be chairing the conference and key speakers include Environment Minister Alun Michael, together with representatives from the European Commission, the Chemicals Industry Association, CBI, the Transport and General Workers’ Union, Friends of the Earth and many leading chemical companies.
Explains David Bowe “Last year’s conference was widely welcomed throughout the chemicals industry as a real opportunity to take an initial look at the Commission’s proposals which will undoubtedly have an impact on every aspect of how chemicals are produced, used and tested…and how they affect our environment. It is a big issue for our region because chemicals is one of our most important industrial sectors.
“Since then the level of interest and attention generated as a result of the publication of the ‘White Paper’ has increased enormously, not only within Europe but worldwide given the international nature of the chemicals industry.
“Tomorrow’s conference provides a very valuable opportunity to look at the proposals from a wide range of perspectives…including the UK Government with the Minister taking part in a question and answer sessions, together with the European Commission, business, trade union and environmental sector viewpoints.
“The success of last year’s event is reflected in the range of interests who will be attending tomorrow’s conference which will once again provide an opportunity for a honest and open discussion on how we can ensure that, at the end of what will be a lengthy consultation process, we can produce legislation which will strike the right balance between protecting the environment and public health…at the same time as enabling the industry to invest and innovate.”
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