The EU Green Deal: Policy recommendations from the fragrance industry

Fra­gran­ce is an essen­tial part of our daily lives and our well-being, health, and hygie­ne. It is a key ele­ment of every­day pro­ducts such as per­so­nal care pro­ducts and cos­me­tics, hand sani­ti­sers, sur­fa­ce clea­ners and anti-bac­te­rial deter­gents, as well as fine fra­gran­ces (per­fu­mes).

The fra­gran­ce industry is a posi­ti­ve for­ce for envi­ron­men­tal, social and eco­no­mic sus­tai­na­bi­lity. The foun­da­tions of the sector’s approach on fra­gran­ce safety and sus­tai­na­bi­lity are the IFRA Stan­dards and the IFRA-IOFI Sus­tai­na­bi­lity Char­ter. For nearly 50 years, the fra­gran­ce industry has advan­ced the safe use of its ingre­dients, notably via

the esta­blish­ment of an industry-wide Code of Prac­ti­ce and the IFRA Standards3, which are based on a con­ti­nuously refi­ned risk assess­ment approach for fra­gran­ce ingre­dients carried out by the Research Ins­ti­tu­te for Fra­gran­ce Mate­rials (RIFM). The IFRA-IOFI Sus­tai­na­bi­lity Char­ter takes a lifecy­cle approach to its pro­ducts across the value chains. Further­mo­re, the Euro­pean Union already has one of the most com­prehen­si­ve and pro­tec­ti­ve regu­la­tory sys­tems and we are com­mit­ted to sup­por­ting the EU in buil­ding on this solid, exis­ting scien­ce-based framework.

In Decem­ber 2019, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion pre­sen­ted its Com­mu­ni­ca­tion on the Euro­pean Green Deal,4 an umbre­lla com­mu­ni­ca­tion cove­ring seve­ral sec­tor-spe­ci­fic deli­ve­ra­bles inclu­ding the Che­mi­cals Stra­tegy for Sus­tai­na­bi­lity (CSS). IFRA supports

the aims of the Green Deal to trans­form the EU’s eco­nomy for a sus­tai­na­ble futu­re. We also sup­port the EU’s efforts to ensu­re health and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion whi­le at the same time impro­ving the com­pe­ti­ti­ve­ness of Euro­pean industry, pro­mo­ting reco­very from the COVID-19 pan­de­mic, fos­te­ring the EU’s open stra­te­gic auto­nomy and making the transition to a bio-based economy.