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CBA Survey reveals REACH Progress - 22/07/2009
A new survey by the Chemical Business Association (CBA) has shown the progress being made by the UK supply chain towards REACH implementation. Half of CBA’s distributor member companies responded to the survey.
CBA’s Director, Peter Newport said, “At the pre-registration stage, it was far from clear how REACH implementation would develop in practice and many companies adopted a precautionary approach in order to safeguard their commercial position.”
The CBA companies responding to the survey had notified 8,000 substance pre-registrations to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Of these, around 2,000 are likely to proceed to formal registration. “If this conversion rate of 25% applies more broadly, it will mean that ECHA’s original estimates for the number of full registrations will be massively exceeded,” explained Peter Newport.
CBA has therefore restated its concerns that ECHA revenue from registration fees will be much higher than predicted – and would not represent a funding shortfall as is currently being claimed by the Agency’s Executive Director, Geert Dancet.
“Given the limited amount of empirical evidence available, CBA believes that ECHA will be over-funded. The problem is compounded by the total absence of transparency in relation to ECHA’s revenue stream from REACH fees. The only sensible solution is for the European Parliament and European Commission – the joint architects of the REACH system - to accept full responsibility for funding ECHA until its true level of revenue has been established, in 2011 or 2012. ECHA can then invoice retrospectively for fees payable by December 2010,” said Peter Newport.
In terms of the timescale applying to these registrations, the CBA Survey shows that about 7% of substances will be registered by the first registration deadline of 1 December 2010; 13% by 1 June 2013; and 80% by 1 June 2018.
The CBA Survey also examines the situation relating to Substance Information Exchange Forums (SIEFs). It shows that only half the companies responding are currently engaged with a functioning SIEF – a response which seems to confirm the concerns recently expressed by both ECHA and Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council).
“This is a worrying situation in relation to the overall implementation of REACH. Whilst, CBA fully supports the ECHA-Cefic campaign to encourage SIEF formation, as most CBA members are smaller firms, very few are in a position to push SIEFs forward on their own account,” he added.
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Further information from:
Peter Newport, Director, CBA
01270 258200
www.chemical.org.uk
NOTE TO EDITORS
- The ECHA-Cefic campaign ‘The clock is ticking – form your SIEF now’ is aimed at chemical industry associations to encourage their members’ participation in SIEFs.
- 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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