Dancet Dismisses 'Naming And Shaming' of Poor REACH Dossier Companies

Publicly naming companies that submit poor quality REACH registration dossiers is not the best way forward, Echa head Geert Dancet has told Chemical Watch.

In an interview during Echa’s tenth anniversary conference in Helsinki last week, Mr Dancet said this ‘naming and shaming’ approach can "create anger" and "bring about legal challenges".

NGOs endorse the method as a way to increase pressure on companies to improve the quality of their registration dossiers and bring them into compliance.

But Mr Dancet said that instead of this, Echa should continue its approach of convincing industry to take voluntary action through agreements, such as one made last year between the agency and metals trade body Eurometaux.

Erwin Annys, Cefic’s director of chemicals policy, told Chemical Watch that naming and shaming is a difficult issue due to "different cultures and mindsets". In some parts of Europe, he said, it is considered acceptable while in others it is not.

He added that further discussion is needed to reach a joint conclusion.

NGOs up pressure

NGOs and Echa failed to reach an agreement on how to tackle non-compliant applications, during a roundtable discussion the day before the Echa conference.

European Environmental Bureau (EEB) secretary general Jeremy Wates said at the conference that the agency is "reticent and over cautious".

"That is why, over the heads of Echa, I would like to speak to member states and industry representatives to appeal for a name and shame approach," he said. "Why should you defend those industries which are failing to submit responsibly completed registration applications?"

The agency has been providing registration numbers – and therefore access to the market – to all registration dossiers "by default, even when these are incomplete, inadequate or irrelevant", he said.

The principle of ‘no data, no market’ is not being applied, he added, and the burden of proof towards industry has not been shifted. Instead, member state authorities "have to fill in the missing information in dossiers".

Echa should significantly step up revocations, he said, adding that there is a lack of a "comprehensive system for knowing how bad the non-compliant dossier situation is".

Revocations

Mr Dancet said that Echa's call for voluntary action "does not take away the fact" that it can and should withdraw registration numbers from companies that are not complying.

"This kind of thing travels quickly – we have taken away registration numbers and people suddenly can no longer sell. This is a much more powerful instrument."

Three registrations have been revoked to date as part of a campaign requesting companies meet the level of the enhanced completeness check launched in June 2016. Echa has sent letters to companies and "a few cases" of potential revocations are pending.

Mr Dancet said Echa has sent "hundreds of such letters threatening" this. Within six months, 90% of companies brought their dossiers into compliance.