Stakeholder perspectives on the REACH revision and the role of the precautionary principle

Abstract

This article provides a qualitative analysis of stakeholder perspectives on the European Commission’s revision of the REACH Regulation, highlighting how these perspectives reveal deeper epistemic and normative tensions in EU risk governance. Beyond summarising stakeholder positions, the paper offers an interpretive reading of how the precautionary principle is invoked to justify competing approaches to scientific uncertainty, risk assessment, and regulatory simplification. The analysis identifies three cross-cutting themes—knowledge and precaution, risk versus hazard, and simplification versus improved protection—and discusses how these reflect divergent legal and epistemological visions of chemical safety in EU. By contextualising stakeholder reasoning within EU regulatory traditions, the study contributes to understanding how precaution continues to shape, and be contested within, contemporary EU chemicals governance.