Recommendations on best practice for interaction during substance evaluation

The document published today presents recommendations for best practice to aid open and efficient interaction between the evaluating Member States (eMSCAs) and the registrants. The eMSCAs are recommended to make contact with the concerned registrants shortly after publication of the CoRAP for the first year substances. Where there are a large number of registrants, eMSCAs should contact the lead registrant in the first instance. Registrants are also encouraged to be proactive.

The registrants should speak with one voice and it is recommended that one representative, the registrants' contact point, should coordinate the communications and send consolidated comments on the draft decisions on behalf of all registrants.

The recommendations are based on the experience gained from the first year of evaluations (2012-2013). They are not legally binding and are not meant to be exhaustive. The need and scope of any interaction will ultimately be specific to each evaluation and is for the eMSCAs to decide.

The paper on recommendations is addressed to the Member States performing the evaluations for the CoRAP substances and their registrants. The aim of the recommendations is to give guidance for a common approach and create a level playing field for interaction among the evaluating MSCAs and the registrants. These recommendations complement the leaflet "Substance evaluation under REACH – Tips for registrants and downstream users" already published on ECHA's website.

At the Workshop on Substance Evaluation, held at ECHA from 23 to 24 May 2013, it was agreed that a working group to propose recommendations for harmonising the interaction between the evaluating Member States (eMSCAs) and registrants during substance evaluation would be set up.

The group was led by Ireland and a Cefic representative, with members from the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, the Commission and ECHA. The competent authorities for REACH and CLP endorsed these recommendations in their meeting in Brussels from 27 to 28 November 2013 and ECHA agreed to publish them on its website.