"The draft Regulation's aims are now accepted by all the stakeholders, partly because a more demanding societal context needs regulations to move on, and partly because the rolling multi-year dialogue of stakeholders and transparency on REACH has brought the chemical industry itself to admit the need for fundamental changes in chemicals management. Big adjustments have been made to the project to accommodate a range of issues (costs, innovation, SMEs, etc.). The debate is now mainly focused on how REACH is to be implemented and what kinds of balances are being struck.The work presented here is an attempt to take existing thinking on the impacts of implementing REACH further, and identify areas for further investigation. The aim was to shift perceptions and open up perspectives by re-contextualizing REACH and offering new insights in light of the current debates on the project.The work is centred on three issues: REACH's compatibility with sustainable development; its interaction with the dynamic of innovation; addressing competitiveness issues, especially for SMEs. ..."

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