Status report concerning the Save the Pigments Initiative

On March the 23rd,2021, the consultation of the petition no. 1072/2020, submitted by Erich Mähnert and Dipl.Ing. (FH) Michael Dirks, concerning the preservation of Pigment Blue 15:3 & Green 7 by Regulation (EG) Nr. 1907/2006 (REACH), has taken place in the EU Committee of Petitions.

As decided by the EU Committee of Petitions, the outcome of the hearing was for the petition to remain open.

This means in effect, that the petition no. 1072/2020 remains open for supporters to register. Such possibility is of highest priority since it is continuously valid to convince the EU Committee regarding the relevance of the topic. The mentioned matter will be achieved most probably through unambiguously demonstrating that the mentioned issues do not only concern the 53.000 supporters of the petition, but moreover affect numerous persons within and outside Europe, within and outside the affected industry. The planned ban is a global ambition. Taking into consideration the number of persons tattooed in Europe (every 4th person), the number of supporters is currently still relatively low. Hence, we continue to emphasize the urgency of the issue and ask the associations to actively keep supporting and promoting the petition.

The decision to keep the petition open for supporters, entails that the circumstances, concerns and doubts that were voiced in front of the EU Committee, will be discussed.

The European Committee will express its views concerning the individual concerns in a written statement, which is to be expected by the responsible persons by next week.

Furthermore, the Committee of Petitions has decided to forward the petition to the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament.

The persons responsible for the initiative are already working on the organization and structuring of work forces concerning the respective implementation of the initiative. Thus, we appeal to associations, manufactures and wholesaler within the industry to support the preservation of the pigments within the initiative. To ensure a fast and effective communication with representative from the industry, the mentioned support will be possible through registration via email. Through that we hope to preliminary build a competent network, to be prepared for further directives form the EU.