Blogs

On 14th October 2020, as part of the EU's zero pollution and circular economy ambitions the European Commission published a Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS). The strategy includes several key actions, one of which is to phase out per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the EU, unless their use is proven to be essential for society.

At the time of publication of the CSS, the REACH competent authorities of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden had also started preparatory work on a broad REACH restriction, covering all uses of PFAS. Based on the ECHA procedures, a draft proposal for an EU PFAS restriction was published on 7th February 2023, and the proposal also targets to ban fluoropolymers. The EU PFAS restriction proposal will be subject to a review process over the next two years. The first major milestone was on March 22nd, 2023, when the restriction proposal was opened for a 6-month public consultation based on ECHA procedures. The public consultation will be closed on Sep. 22nd 2023 and a few month afterwards a first feedback from ECHA is expected.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide a brief overview of the current situation and actions. It remains to be seen whether the results of the public consultation are already available or whether further measures are already known at the time of this conference.