23 Member States have already phased out lead gunshot for hunting over wetlands. For the past five years, work has been underway to develop an EU-wide restriction on lead gunshot over wetlands. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) produced its option, but things went downhill when the European Commission (EC) started producing its proposals for discussion within the EU REACH Committee. Unsurprisingly, the EC has been unable to receive enough support from governments and was forced to make revisions. However, the revisions do not go far enough to address several fundamental problems. Even though the current proposal is unworkable and evidently illegal, the EC requested a vote by written procedure on 24 June 2020. Member States have until 15 July 2020 to express their position (positive, negative or abstention).

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