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Key actions to simplify and consolidate the legal framework: A zero tolerance approach to non-compliance?

All chemicals, materials and products produced in the EU or placed on the European market must fully comply with EU information, safety and environmental requirements. In spite of this, currently almost 30% of the alerts on dangerous products on the market involve risks due to chemicals, with almost 90% of those products coming from outside the EU and imported articles and online sales representing a particular challenge. Equally, only one third of the registration dossiers of the chemical substances registered by industry under REACH are fully compliant with the information requirements. Stepping up implementation and enforcement of chemicals legislation is urgently needed to ensure compliance for the production and placing on the market of chemicals as well as for their release and disposal.

The implementation of the new market surveillance Regulation as well as the forthcoming measures to reinforce the EU Customs Union will strengthen enforcement both within the single market and at the EU’s external borders. The Commission is considering which additional measures could be put in place to strengthen the enforcement of REACH at the EU’s borders, as well as to promote cooperation with online market platforms.

Furthermore, enforcement of EU chemicals legislation is not equally effective throughout the EU, due to the different capacities and resources at national level. Member States must increase their enforcement capacity to levels where they can be effective, allowing to reap the benefits from the EU’s rapid information and alert tools, better exploit digital tools for faster action and optimise resources, including of market surveillance authorities. The European Chemicals Agency’s Forum for exchange of information and enforcement has proven effective in advancing the harmonisation of enforcement and will extend its cooperation with existing enforcement networks and authorities to avoid duplication of actions and increase effectiveness.

Ongoing activities aim at improving compliance with environmental legislation relevant to chemicals. A good example is the Environmental Compliance and Governance Forum, which brings together Member States’ chemicals authorities and environmental enforcement networks. The upcoming zero pollution action plan will initiate further specific actions to control chemical pollution.

Actions to empower consumers and consumer organisations will also be key, as their behaviour is a powerful driver to industrial change and to ensuring compliance with legislation. This will be pursued by implementing consumer protection rules.

ZERO TOLERANCE FOR NON-COMPLIANCE

The Commission will:

  • strengthen the principles of 'no data, no market' and the ‘polluter-pays’ under REACH, in particular by requiring compliance of all registration dossiers and revoking the registration numbers in case of non-compliance;
  • propose to entrust the Commission with the duty to carry out audits in Member States, where relevant, to ensure compliance and enforcement of chemicals legislation, in particular REACH, and use infringement procedures as necessary;
  • target known areas of high risk of non-compliance, in particular online sales, imported articles, classification and labelling and restrictions;
  • extend the scope of action of the European Anti-Fraud Office for coordination and investigation, to tackle the circulation of illicit chemical products in the EU;
  • support Member States to prioritise integrated enforcement through multi-legislation checks;
  • ensure a harmonised EU-wide response and coordinated exchange of information on enforcement of chemical legislation, by strengthening the use of relevant Commission IT platforms;
  • explore the use of digital tools to support market surveillance and customs authorities as well as to improve the compliance of products containing chemicals sold online to European consumers;
  • encourage the Member States to use the Recovery and Resilience Facility to invest in the reinforcement of market surveillance infrastructures and digitalisation;
  • establish – under the Market Surveillance Regulation– uniform conditions and frequency of checks for certain products where specific risks or serious breaches of applicable Union harmonisation legislation have been continuously identified.

Source: European Commission

 

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