Suspension of the CTAC vote at the European Commission
As planned, the European Commission's REACH Committee discussed the CTAC authorisation project on 13th May. This discussion was to be followed by a procedural written vote.
However, the vote did not take place immediately after the discussion, as the Commission requested a suspension of the vote to have time to consider the draft of a new European Parliament resolution against a draft authorisation decision relating to the application for authorisation by CTACSub. Having the same basis, the two draft authorisation decisions present the same analysis.
This resolution, if adopted by the European Parliament, would have to be discussed by the cabinets of the European Commissioners for Internal Market (DG GROW)and Environment (DG ENV) before the vote on the draft CTAC decision can take place. This vote could therefore be delayed for a few more weeks.
However, it would appear that a qualified majority is emerging within the REACH Committee in favour of the draft CTACSub decision. The Commission considers that the draft decision is not contrary to the decision of the General Court of the European Union, which annulled an authorisation granted in 2016 for 6 uses of lead chromate. The draft CTACSub decision is already restrictive as it defines "key functions" to which downstream users must refer in order to benefit from an authorisation.
In addition, several industry federations and groupings in favour of an authorisation for the continued use of Chromium VI are organising themselves to present their arguments against the draft resolution of the European Parliament and to express to the Commission, once again, the importance of a vote, as soon as possible, on the CTACSub authorisation decision.
The context of the discussions
On 13th May , the European Commission's REACH Committee was scheduled to discuss CTAC new draft decision. The latter concerns the use of chromium trioxide for uses 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, while use 3, concerning functional chromium plating for decorative purposes, is still subject to evaluation by the Commission.
The draft provides that the review periods granted to the consortium will be 4 years from the date of adoption of the decision for uses 5 and 6 and 7 years from the date of prohibition of the use of the substance for uses 1 and 4 and for use 2 which concerns functional chroming.
The draft also states that downstream users should refer to the "key functions" which are mentioned in the Decision as being necessary for their use of chromium trioxide for uses 2, 4 and 5. Authorisation is therefore refused for all other uses which would not require these key functions.
With regards to functional chromium plating, an authorisation will be granted when one of the following functions is necessary for the use: wear resistance, hardness, layer thickness, corrosion resistance, coefficient of friction or the effect on the surface morphology.
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