German chemicals trade body backs BDI call for postponement of regulatory deadlines

German chemical industry body VCI has confirmed that it supports a call by the Federation of German Industries (BDI) for the postponement of most key chemical regulatory deadlines of at least six months.

Welcoming the delays already announced by Echa in areas like invoice payments and responding to draft decisions, BDI deputy director general Holger Lösch wrote to Echa executive director Bjorn Hansen and key officials in DGs Environment and GROW last month urging the postponement of deadlines in ten areas.

In his letter Mr Lösch argued that companies were in an exceptional situation with staff deployed to deal with the Covid-19 crisis and needed to "avoid further burdens".

The German organisation’s position contrasts with that of European chemicals trade body Cefic, which, according to product stewardship executive director Sylvie Lemoine, "does not support blanket delays".

A BDI spokesperson said it didn’t consult its member sectoral associations, including VCI, before it sent the letter because the issues had already been discussed by its chemicals and waste working groups. The sector trade bodies received copies of the letter after it was sent to Echa and the Commission, but since then it hasn’t received any objections.

Procedural deadlines

In a written statement, VCI told Chemical Watch "the authorities or the European Commission "should examine whether existing procedural deadlines can be extended or new deadlines postponed in individual cases. For example, there is an urgent need to postpone the application deadline of Annex VIII of CLP, which regulates the notification to poison information centres." A spokesperson confirmed that by "individual cases" it means individual procedural deadlines in regulations, not individual companies.

The statement added that "the potential for simplifications and improvements must be exploited to the full if the crisis is to be overcome. Such simplifications are possible, for example, in the REACH procedures for registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction, as well as in communication in the supply chain, without changing the REACH Regulation, e.g. through guidelines. In order to support companies on their way out of the crisis, additional burdens on companies must be avoided."

Asked if it supported the BDI’s call to postpone the deadlines, BASF, which is a member of Cefic and VCI, said postponement of the substances of concern in products (Scip) database reporting deadline would be acceptable, but it would prefer having "smart regulations". And regarding postponement of deadlines for consultations in areas such as restrictions, it would depend on whether "a particular consultation is negatively affected by the coronavirus crisis".

Another Cefic and VCI member, Evonik Industries, whose chairman is also VCI president, said it welcomed Echa’s extended deadlines in areas such as registration dossier compliance checks, but swerved answering the question directly.

Echa response

In his reply to the BDI, Mr Hansen said the suggestions for changing deadlines for Scip database submissions and poison centre notifications have to be considered "by the European Commission and the legislator" because the deadlines stem directly from EU and/or national legislation. Echa is not in a position to change these timelines. But in the case of consultation deadlines for things like the identification of SVHCs or restriction proposals, Echa can consider individual requests from companies for extensions and set new deadlines that fit within the timelines set in the legislation.

The Commission did not provide a copy of its response to the BDI, but the federation confirmed that it has received an answer that said it was not possible to change the Scip reporting deadline because it was set in the legislation and could only be changed by getting amending legislation through the European Parliament and Council. The Commission made a similar statement to Chemical Watch, but added that "depending on how the coronavirus crisis develops, we may revise this position".