On the draft Commission regulation amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards lead in gunshot

B100432/2026

European Parliament resolution on the draft Commission regulation amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards lead in gunshot

(D105447/07 – 2026/2824(RPS))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the draft Commission regulation amending Annex XVII to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) as regards lead in gunshot (D105447/07),

– having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), amending Directive 1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 as well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and Commission Directives 91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC, and in particular Article 68(1) thereof,

– having regard to the opinion delivered on 25 June 2026 by the committee referred to in Article 133 of the above Regulation,

– having regard to Article 5a(3)(b) of Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission,

– having regard to Rule 115(2) and (3), and (4)(c) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas Article 68(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 empowers the Commission to adopt only those restrictions necessary to address unacceptable risks to human health or the environment arising from the manufacture, use or placing on the market of substances;

B. whereas the Court of Justice of the European Union has confirmed that, under Article 68(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, the adoption of a new restriction requires the Commission to take into account the socio-economic impact of that restriction, including the availability of alternatives;

C. whereas the Commission itself acknowledges in its draft regulation that the geopolitical situation has changed significantly since the adoption in 2022 of the opinions of Risk Assessment Committee and Socio-Economic Analysis Committee of the European Chemicals Agency (the ‘Agency’);

D. whereas the Commission further acknowledges that it cannot be certain that sufficient volumes of alternative ammunition to lead shot will be available even within the five-year timeframe initially envisaged by the Agency, and that it therefore proposes to extend the transitional period to seven years;

E. whereas this acknowledgement calls into question some of the assumptions regarding the availability of alternative solutions on which the previous socio-economic analyses were based and should have led to a comprehensive update of the assessment of the availability, cost, production capacity and technical compatibility of these solutions;

F. whereas steel shot is expected to constitute the main economically viable substitute for lead gunshot; whereas available evidence indicates that Union production capacity for steel shot remains limited and that a substantial share of steel shot production is currently located outside the Union; whereas increasing regulatory demand for steel shot in the absence of sufficient Union production capacity risks increasing the Union’s dependence on third-country supply chains, including Chinese production;

G. whereas the Commission expressly introduced a derogation for sports shooting in order to enable Member States to host the Olympic Games and other international competitions and to allow athletes to continue training with lead shot in the Union; whereas Union athletes are among the world leaders in different Olympic clay shooting competitions; whereas replacing lead shot with alternative materials would increase costs, reduce accessibility to the sport and risk placing Union athletes at a competitive disadvantage compared with athletes from countries where lead ammunition remains permitted;

H. whereas Europe has a unique heritage of historic firearms and centuries-old gunsmithing know-how, with firearms often being preserved and passed down from one generation to the next as part of Europe’s cultural, historical and family heritage; whereas many such firearms were designed and proofed for lead ammunition, and the use of alternative ammunition may affect their safety and integrity, potentially jeopardising the preservation of historically significant firearms, their transmission to future generations and the related European craftsmanship;

I. whereas the draft Commission regulation is not limited to prohibiting the use of lead shot but also prohibits its carrying and transport in the context of hunting or travel to the hunting ground;

J. whereas a ban on the mere possession or transport of ammunition in those circumstances, irrespective of its actual use, should meet particularly high standards of necessity, proportionality and legal certainty;

K. whereas lead mobility in shooting-range soils depends strongly on site-specific conditions, in particular soil pH; whereas the draft Commission regulation itself recognises this by requiring pH control between 6,5 and 8,5; whereas uniform recovery and containment requirements should therefore be assessed against less intrusive, site-specific risk-management measures, including pH management and drainage-water monitoring;

L. whereas the Commission itself acknowledges that some of the measures initially envisaged, in particular a recovery rate of over 90 % and a mandatory system of individual authorisation for shooters, would have been excessively difficult to implement or too bureaucratic;

M. whereas it is therefore incumbent on the Commission to demonstrate that the other obligations retained constitute the necessary and least restrictive solution for achieving the desired level of protection;

1. Opposes adoption of the draft Commission regulation;

2. Considers that the draft Commission regulation fails to respect the principle of proportionality, in particular as it has not been sufficiently demonstrated that the socio-economic impact of the restriction and the actual availability of alternatives have been reassessed in the light of the current industrial and geopolitical situation;

3. Considers that the draft Commission regulation is not compatible with the requirements laid down in Article 68(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006;

4. Calls on the Commission to withdraw the draft regulation and submit a new one to the committee after carrying out an up-to-date, comprehensive and well-documented assessment of:

(a) the Union production capacities for alternatives and their actual availability in each Member State;

(b) the actual cost of replacing ammunition and, where applicable, of adapting or replacing the weapons concerned;

(c) the compatibility of the various alternatives with the categories of weapons currently used for hunting;

(d) the ballistic consequences of the substitution of lead shot, including residual energy, shot-pattern density, recoil, effective performance in hunting and the potential consequences for animal welfare and for the health and accessibility of sports shooters;

(e) the economic consequences for hunters, gunsmiths, ammunition manufacturers and shooting range operators, particularly small businesses;

(f) the consequences of the proposed restriction for the various disciplines of sport shooting and for the organisation of national and international competitions within the Union;

5. Calls on the Commission to re-examine, in particular, the proportionality of the ban on the mere carrying or transport of lead shot whilst travelling to a hunting trip, in order to ensure legal certainty and to prevent individuals who have made no use of such ammunition from being subject to disproportionate penalties;

6. Calls on the Commission to consider additional, targeted and objectively justified exemptions where the use of alternatives is technically impossible, poses safety risks or entails manifestly disproportionate costs, as well as measures to ensure fair treatment across the various shooting disciplines;

7. Calls on the Commission to provide for appropriate exemptions or derogations for historic, collectible and traditionally manufactured firearms where the technical compatibility and safety of alternative shot cannot be demonstrated, taking particular account of chamber pressure, ballistic performance and projectile characteristics, in order to prevent damage to, or the irreversible loss or de facto obsolescence of, firearms forming part of Europe’s cultural and industrial heritage and to safeguard their preservation and transmission to future generations;

8. Calls on the Commission to provide appropriate exemptions for Olympic and international clay shooting disciplines, in order to ensure fair and equal competitive conditions and ensure that higher ammunition costs do not undermine access to shooting sports;

9. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.