European Union enterprise and industry ministers have criticised a plan by the European Commission to register and test over 30,000 chemicals used by manufacturers.

The Enterprise Commissioner, Mr Erkki Liikanen, claimed that the proposed Chemicals Directive, which would cost industry 2.3 billion, represented a balance between the needs of industry and the environment.

France, Germany and Britain complained that the Commission's assessment of the proposal's impact on competitiveness lacked rigour and that the plan's health benefits were unproven.

The proposed system, called REACH (registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals), requires companies manufacturing or importing more than one tonne of a chemical to register it in a central database. Chemicals considered of high concern, such as those that could cause cancer or that persist and build up in the environment or are produced in huge quantities, will undergo a risk assessment.

The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said that, although the proposal was an advance on earlier drafts, she remained uncertain that its cost was proportionate to its benefit.

"We want something that's practical and realistic, particularly in relation to its effect on downstream users. We want something that doesn't put the industry at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the industry in the US or Japan or wherever and we want something that's enforceable," she said.

The Commission assumed the market could sustain the cost of implementing the directive but it was essential that European industry's competitiveness should not be jeopardised, she said.

"We want the chemical and pharmaceutical industry to be strong in Europe. We want it to be innovative in Europe. We don't want it operating with its hands tied behind its back.

"If you have regulations and costs applied to the industry that are way out of synch with what happens in other economic blocs you're going to be putting the industry at a disadvantage."