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CBA Calls for an Urgent Review of ECHA's Funding - 14/05/2009
The Chemical Business Association called for an urgent review of the funding levels for the European Chemical Agency (ECHA).
The CBA believes ECHA will be massively over-funded based on the extent to which it underestimated the number of REACH pre-registrations it would receive. Instead of the forecast 150,000 pre-registrations, ECHA in fact received 2.7 million - eighteen times more than it expected."
Time and again, CBA warned that ECHA's estimates for the number of pre-registrations were wide of the mark - and it's industry that has had to handle the consequences," said Melvyn Whyte, Chairman of CBA's REACH Task Force.
The CBA believes that the volume of pre-registrations pose a serious problem for the effective implementation of REACH as well as increasing the likelihood that ECHA will be massively over-funded.
"ECHA's error in underestimating the number of pre-registrations has resulted in SIEFs (Substance Information Exchange Forums) which are completely unmanageable and in some cases have 5,000 participants. This situation has so distorted the nature of SIEFs that they are clearly not capable of fulfilling their intended function. The whole situation needs to be urgently addressed, otherwise REACH implementation will just grind to a halt," said Melvyn Whyte.
CBA is also concerned about the number of pre-registrations and the structure of REACH fees having the capacity to over-fund ECHA. The possibility of over-funding was recognised by ECHA during last year's pre-registration period.
In June 2008, when ECHA's Executive Director, Geert Dancet, was interviewed by CBA's Outlook magazine, he said, "We need to wait and see. Industry must not panic. If our calculations are wrong and we receive massively more registrations than we expect, we will have to review the situation towards the end of 2010. … If our revenue stream proves much stronger than we originally forecasted, I expect REACH registration costs to be revised downwards - particularly for smaller firms."
Melvyn Whyte said, "As it is now a near certainty that the situation Geert Dancet described will actually come about, CBA is calling for the mechanism to review REACH fees to be initiated. This situation is given added urgency by the worsening economic situation the industry is facing."
Further information from:
Peter Newport, Director,
CBA 01270 258200
www.chemical.org.uk
Notes to Editors
Each year CBA's distributormember companies handle 2.3 million tonnes of chemicals with a market value of almost two billion euros.CBA's logistics companies distribute 6.7 million tonnes of chemicals annually. CBA members, the majority of which are SMEs, are the key industry interface with thousands of downstream chemical users.
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