Tuesday, February 5, 2013

EU Commission Publishes REACH Review

The EU Commission has fulfilled its obligation to review the REACH program. It published its REACH review on February 5, 2013. The 15-page document concluded:

"that REACH functions well and delivers on all objectives that at present can be assessed. Some needs for adjustments have been identified, but balanced against the interest of ensuring legislative stability and predictability, the Commission will not propose any changes to the enacting terms of REACH."

They did, however, determine that there is a need to reassess the impact of REACH on small and medium sized entities (SMEs), which because of their relative low benefit compared to the high costs of compliance the Commission felt have still been unduly impacted despite reduced fees and testing obligations.

A summary of the report can be read here.

The prepublication version of the report can be downloaded here as a PDF.