REACH
Starting back in early 2009, the European Defence Agency, at the request of its participating Member States, launched – in coordination with the European Commission – an initiative with respect to the European Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and its defence implications, specifically focusing on the area of national defence exemptions and their potential impact on the European Defence Equipment Market.
REACH basically provides for a European system of registration of chemical substances. In the registration process, the chemical substance and its intended use have to be reported to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) by the producer or importer into the EU. Producers and importers also have to test the chemical substances and provide respective data to ECHA.
In the long run, REACH aims at encouraging industry to substitute certain dangerous and most harmful chemical substances by less dangerous ones. REACH entered into force on 1 June 2007. The period for preregistration (a simplified procedure for timely registration in order to benefit from a smoother fade-in into actual registration) expired on 1 December 2008. As of this date, production and import of, in principle, any chemical substance is subject to the submission of a full registration dossier to ECHA.
Photoxpress.com REACH, as a European Regulation, is directly applicable in Member States and hence applies to the defence sector as well. However, REACH in its Article 2, paragraph 3, allows for national “exemptions […] in specific cases for certain substances […], where necessary in the interest of defence”.
Granting such defence exemptions is first and foremost a national responsibility. However, REACH is clearly an area where a harmonised approach towards granting or denying of national defence exemptions would contribute to a level playing field for European defence industries and hence support the creation of an open and transparent European Defence Equipment Market and the maintenance and development of a capable and capability-driven European Defence Technological and Industrial Base, providing Armed Forces with the right defence equipment to meet their operational requirements.
Aim
In order to align and harmonise their national exemption policies and procedures, the EDA's participating Member States agreed on National Defence Exemptions aiming at the setting of common standards for granting defence exemptions, at the provision of transparency about national policies and procedures and eventually at an appropriate acknowledgment of other Member States' defence exemptions.
Participating Member States agreed to accept the safeguard and traceability standards imposed by REACH as a benchmark for their respective national procedures. Emphasising the need for transparency about national policies and procedures, they tasked the EDA to establish a publicly accessible web-portal to post the main characteristics of their national proceedings.
On the basis of the Steering Board Decision and on the so created transparency, Member States will – over time – work towards mutual acknowledgement of defence exemptions.
As the REACH Regulation is also applicable in countries that do not participate in the EDA, the Steering Board decided to invite such countries to adopt the principles of the Steering Board Decision on REACH – National Defence Exemptions.
The implementation of the decision will be reviewed on an annual basis starting from 2011.
Current Status
EDA has, together with its Member States, established a network of national REACH Defence experts which meet on an ad-hoc basis to discuss current issues. The web-portal is accessible to the public since 14 October 2010.
Way Ahead
EDA, together with its Member States, will continue working towards the primary goals of the initiative – common standards, transparency and mutual acknowledgment – and operate and maintain the EDA’s REACH web-portal.
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