REACH stands for “Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals”.

Regulation N°1907/2006 on REACH was finally adopted on 18 December 2006 and was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 30 December 2006. It entered into force on 1 June 2007.

The REACH Regulation establishes an EU wide regulatory framework for the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals. In 1998, the Environment Council decided to review existing EU chemicals legislation in order to establish new, integrated legislation, which would assess existing and new substances in a harmonised way throughout the EU. The European Commission’s legislative proposal on REACH was issued on 29 October 2003 and was negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council under the so-called codecision procedure.

 

 

 

Accounting for an estimated 9% of all chemicals used, Orgalime represents a major EU downstream user industry of chemical substances and preparations. Indeed, a broad variety of chemicals, such as paints, (cooling) lubricants, oils, chemical cleaners, organic solvents or adhesives, are applied in our day-to-day manufacturing business.

Orgalime industries also represent EU producers and importers of final articles including many of their components for both, professional customers and private consumers: we are clients of the chemical industry and supplier of capital goods to all other industry sectors, including the automotive, aerospace, chemical, food or textile industries as well as to the health and environment sectors.

Considering the challenge of REACH within the industry that Orgalime represents, and which mainly consists of SMEs, Orgalime has published A practical guide for downstream users, article producers and article importers to understanding Regulation N°1907/2006 on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH). This Orgalime guide is intended to provide practical guidance to downstream users using chemicals in their industrial (including engineering) processes as they prepare themselves to implement the new legislation. It is also addressed to producers and importers of articles. This guide is a living document and will be updated on a regular basis, since a number of implementation issues are not yet clarified.

The guide can be downloaded free of charge at http://publications.orgalime.org/

During the legislative process, Orgalime has been actively representing downstream users’ article producers and article importers’ views from the presentation of the European Commission’s proposal in October 2003 until the final adoption of the Regulation by the Council in December 2006.

Primary objectives of our work include

  • Ensuring a manufacturing base for engineering companies in the EU
  • Safeguarding the innovation capacities and competitiveness of European engineering industries
  • Ensuring fair competition between producers of articles operating within the EU and their competitors in Non-EU countries, where REACH does not apply.
For more information on Orgalime’s positions and Orgalime’s fruitful alliance with the automotive and aerospace industry (ACEA and ASD Europe) throughout the legislative adoption procedure please consult our environmental section.

We are updating the Orgalime REACH guide according to new developments.

We participate and bring in downstream user’s views into the cross industry platform co-ordinated by BusinessEurope.

We are following the institutions work on the implementation of REACH, and a series of programmes called REACH Implementation Projects (RIPs).