REACH · GlobalLawDB

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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency, amending Directive 1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 as well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and Commission Directives 91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC^note, and in particular Article 74(1) and Article 132 thereof,Whereas:

(1)Increasing the sustainability of the financing model of the European Chemicals Agency (‘the Agency’) is one of the objectives envisaged under the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability^note, considering in particular the reduced and unpredictable fee income following the last registration deadline in 2018 under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council and the planned reassignment of scientific and technical work to Union agencies. This Regulation, amending Commission Regulation (EC) No 340/2008^note, with regard to the fees and charges under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 and procedures related to same, is one of a series of measures to contribute to increasing the financial sustainability of the Agency.

(2)According to Article 22(1) of Regulation (EC) No 340/2008, the fees and charges provided for in that Regulation should be reviewed annually by reference to the inflation rate as measured by means of the European Index of Consumer Prices as published by Eurostat pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95^note, repealed and replaced by Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council^note.

(3)Following the review conducted by the Commission, standard fees and charges should be adjusted in accordance with the average annual inflation rates for 2021, 2022 and 2023, as published by Eurostat to reflect the cumulative inflation rate of 19,5 %. To safeguard the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (‘SMEs’) and in line with the objectives of the Commission’s Political Guidelines 2024-2029^note and Commission’s SME Relief Package^note, this inflation adjustment will not apply to fees and charges payable by SMEs to the Agency.

(4)The adjustment of fees and charges should be fixed at such a level that the revenue derived from those fees and charges, when combined with other sources of the Agency’s revenue pursuant to Article 96(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, is sufficient to cover the cost of the services delivered by the Agency.

(5)The Management Board of the Agency should, within the powers conferred to it by Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, continue monitoring the efforts pursued by the Agency for efficiency gains to achieve the best relationship between resources employed and results achieved. The Commission should have regard to the opinion of the Management Board when next reviewing the Agency’s fees and charges according to Article 22(1) of Regulation (EC) No 340/2008.

(6)According to Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 340/2008, registrants or applicants self-declare their company size, on the basis of the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC^note, at the time of dossier submissions. Following this, the Agency carries out an ex post verification of the correctness of these declarations. This system was initially required to be able to cope with the magnitude of the registrations under the regulatory deadlines under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. However, experience has shown that the ex post verification is work intensive, often requiring multiple interactions with registrants or applicants, in particular where the company’s status has changed since the initial self-declaration, and therefore requires verification by means of multi-annual batches. Moreover, in cases where the size of a registrant or applicant is larger than that which was self-declared, a top-up fee and an administrative charge is applied in line with the Agency’s Management Board decision^note and Regulation (EC) No 340/2008. The correctness of the fee payments and the effectiveness and timeliness of the SME verification process have also been brought to the Commission’s attention by the European Court of Auditors, the European Parliament^note and the Council^note.

(7)Given that the magnitude of submissions has declined since the last registration deadline in 2018 and in order to improve the efficiency of the SME verification process and to establish a level-playing field, it is appropriate to request the application for recognition of the SME status and supporting documents in advance of the corresponding submission. The Agency should thus conduct an ex ante SME verification. The Agency should decide on applications for the recognition of the SME status without delay and should decide at the latest within two months from receipt of all relevant documentation. Accordingly, an application for recognition of the SME status should be submitted without delay and at the latest two months before a submission for which a fee reduction is claimed, so that the Agency has sufficient time to make a decision on the applicant’s SME status before the actual submission.

(8)In view of the appeal deadline under Article 92(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 and the impact that the timely payment of the appeal fee has on the admissibility of such an appeal, for the purpose of a reduced appeal fee, the appellant should submit a self-declaration and supporting documents on its SME status, together with the submission of the appeal.

(9)The verification of SME status might use resources from the Agency that would not be covered by the SME fee or charge paid with the subsequent submission, therefore, the Agency should have the possibility to introduce an administrative charge to be paid by companies applying for SME status reflecting the workload associated with the verification. The administrative charge should not be levied where the subsequent decision of the Agency on the SME status recognises the SME status of the applicant.

(10)In order to enhance legal certainty and reduce the administrative burden associated with the submission of an SME claim and verification of such claim, the Agency’s decision on SME status should remain valid for three years and, during this period, it should apply to all submissions made to the Agency in accordance with relevant Union law requiring SME status verification, not only to submissions under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. This means that any other submissions under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 or other Union law, triggering a fee or charge during this three-year period by the same company should be covered by the Agency’s existing decision on SME status, without the need to reapply for SME status recognition. To ease the burden on SMEs, the first re-application for recognition of SME status after the Agency’s first decision on the SME status may be done by a self-declaration on the company size if it is submitted two months before the end of the three-year validity period and if the SME status has not changed. If the status has not changed then no new information is required to be submitted.

(11)Stakeholders and the Agency require sufficient time to take the appropriate measures to comply with the changes to the SME verification process of this Regulation. The application of the amendments to Article 13 of Regulation (EC) No 340/2008 concerning the SME verification process should therefore be deferred by 15 months from entry into force of this Regulation.

(12)Regulation (EC) No 340/2008 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(13)This Regulation should not apply to valid submissions that are pending on the date of entry into force of this Regulation.

(14)The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established under Article 133 of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: