Civil society calls on European Parliament to reject premature elimination of SCIP database

Health and Environment Justice Support (HEJSupport), together with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and groundWork South Africa, has sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliament urging them to reject the European Commission’s proposal to repeal the SCIP database without a fully operational replacement.

The SCIP database is currently the only EU-wide, legally mandated system providing structured information on hazardous substances in products. It plays a critical role in protecting workers, supporting recyclers, enabling informed decision-making, and ensuring transparency on substances of concern across supply chains. With more than 16.8 million articles registered, SCIP demonstrates both the scale of hazardous substances in products and the importance of maintaining effective right-to-know mechanisms.

The European Commission suggests that future tools, such as the Digital Product Passport and the common chemicals data platform, will eventually replace SCIP. However, these systems will not be fully operational for several years and are unlikely to initially cover all product groups. Eliminating SCIP prematurely would therefore create a dangerous transparency gap, undermining worker protection, chemical safety, and circular economy objectives.

In the letter, civil society organizations call on the European Parliament and Council to maintain SCIP until an equivalent or stronger system is fully operational, guarantee continuity of the right-to-know, and ensure that future digital product information systems provide at least the same level of protection and accessibility.

At a time when the EU is strengthening its circular economy and non-toxic environment ambitions, removing a functioning transparency tool without a proven replacement risks weakening health and environmental protection.