A new section on the ECHA webpages provides information on the impact of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union

ECHA/NA/17/21

On 29 March 2017, the UK Government invoked Article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) and notified its intention to withdraw the UK from the EU. Under current circumstances, the United Kingdom will thus become a non-EU (“third”) country as from 30 March 2019. 

Helsinki, 25 September 2017 The UK withdrawal will have profound implications as the EU regulatory regimes that have been established for numerous sectors of the internal market economy will thereafter no longer directly apply to the United Kingdom.

The REACH Regulation is globally the most advanced regime to regulate the safe handling of chemicals for the benefit of human health and our environment. It also assigned regulatory functions to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) as well as to national authorities, including those of the United Kingdom. Similarly, the EU legislator has entrusted ECHA with managing the implementation of the Biocidal Products (BPR), Classification and Labelling (CLP) and Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Regulations.

Upon the UK withdrawal, cooperation with the UK will no longer be based on these EU regulations.

Companies within the UK and from the remaining EU-27 Member States with rights and duties under these regulations and their businesses in supply chains throughout the EU will be tangibly affected.

A new section on the ECHA webpages provides information on the impact of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union on the work of the Agency as well as advice to business operators in the format of questions and answers.

The negotiation process on the terms of the UK withdrawal as well as the future EU-UK relations will take time. Consequently, information provided in the new section on the ECHA webpages will be incrementally expanded and updated as the withdrawal process becomes clearer. Readers are therefore advised to consult such updates in light of developments.