EUROPEAN UNION

PFAS restriction under REACH – Next steps. Experts from the Socio-Economic Assessment Committee will meet from 9 to 11 June. They will receive an update on the outcome of the public consultation held on the draft SEAC opinion from 26 March to 25 May.

Commissioner Roswall on the other hand announced in the context of the meeting with the European Parliament’s ENVI Committee that she hopes the Commission’s proposal on the restriction will be issued by the end of the year.

PFAS in packaging – Commission issues recommendations for a testing approach. The Commission presented its interpretation of the restriction on the presence of PFAS in packaging above certain thresholds, which was introduced by the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. In its Notice issued on 30 March, it notes the absence of a harmonized methodology at the EU level to measure PFAS in food contact packaging. It adds that the Total Fluorine content shall be measured as a first step, which may allow depending on the level observed to assert compliance on its own. The restriction will apply from 12 August 2026.

EU MEMBER STATES

FRANCE – Consultation has started on the PFAS water pollution levy. The draft implementing decree establishing the list of PFAS substances covered by the country’s new water pollution levy is subject to public consultation until 8 May. The levy was introduced under the law of 27 February 2025 and confirmed in the 2026 Finance Law. Should the decree be adopted as planned, the levy will apply from September 2026. The levy has been set at 1 euro per gram of PFAS, with a possible reduction for companies that put in place an efficient cleaning method.

GERMANY – Government clarifies its position on PFAS in its Chemicals Industry Strategy. The Strategy issued on 26 March defends a risk-based, differentiated and targeted approach on the ongoing EU generic restriction. Germany thus appears to reject the idea of a grouped ban and commits to support the inclusion of transition periods and derogations including unlimited ones where there is no foreseeable alternative. It cites the case of fluoropolymers which it considers should be treated separately.

UNITED KINGDOM

UK Parliamentary Committee Publishes Report on PFAS Risks. We have previously reported that in February 2026 the Government published the UK PFAS Plan, which proved to be a divisive document. On 23 April 2026, having gathered evidence as part of a parliamentary inquiry, the House of Commons’ Environmental Audit Committee (‘EAC’) published a report titled ‘Addressing the risks from Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)’.

The report summarises the conclusions drawn by the EAC in the course of its inquiry and makes recommendations grouped into three areas: 1) Preventing PFAS at source; 2) Human exposure and risk management; 3) Addressing pollution. We have summarised a number of the recommendations made in this blog post. The EAC’s remit is “to consider the extent to which the policies and programmes of government departments and non-departmental public bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development, and to audit their performance against sustainable development and environmental protection targets.” It does not have the power to set law or policy, but these findings are still notable and will require Government response (where possible, Government responds to reports of select committees like the EAC within two months).

OTHER

U.N.’s chemicals chief regrets that EU should have moved faster on PFAS. The U.N.’s chemicals chief Jacqueline Alvarez stated that the EU should have moved faster to restrict the use of PFAS. When asked about the impact of the EU’s restrictions on a broader scale, she referred to a grasshopper effect, noting that restrictions lead to a shift of productions towards other jurisdictions, thus not inducing a decline at global level.