Helsinki, 9 January 2019 – The inspections are part of Forum’s seventh coordinated REACH enforcement project (REF-7) involving all 31 EU and EEA countries during which cooperation with customs authorities to check imports of substances is expected.

The project aims to ensure EU-wide enforcement of the obligations of importers and manufacturers to register their substances, given that the last registration deadline passed in 2018. Checks will cover imported and manufactured substances in all tonnage bands, the main focus being on substances imported or manufactured in quantities of 1-100 tonnes per year. The inspections will also include a check of parts of the registration dossier and of other duties related to registration, for example, whether the registrant is compliant with the duty to update a registration dossier.

Inspectors in Member States will verify whether substances registered as intermediates meet the definition of intermediates and are manufactured and used under strictly controlled conditions. In addition, substances registered as monomers in polymers will be checked.

ECHA’s Forum finalised the preparations for the REF-7 project at the end of 2018. The inspection activities will continue throughout 2019. A report on the results of the inspections will be available in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Background

The Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement (Forum) is a network of authorities responsible for the enforcement of the REACH, CLP and PIC regulations and the BPR in the EU, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.