OPEN LETTER

The letter asserts that DG GROW has misinterpreted EU chemicals law and applied a lenient policy to the REACH authorisation process for ten years. It calls for the Commission to align its practices with a recent Court of Justice judgment, specifically by rejecting applications with non-negligible uncertainties or data gaps and by ending the illegal practice of requesting necessary information after authorisation has already been granted.

• The authors claim that DG GROW has misinterpreted EU chemicals law and applied a lenient policy to the REACH authorisation process for the last 10 years, which has prevented the system from delivering its full potential in protecting citizens and the environment.
• According to the Court of Justice, the Commission must reject an application if non-negligible uncertainties remain after considering all available information, including third-party data and opinions from ECHA's technical committees.
• The letter identifies several illegal practices persisted in by the Commission, including requesting information that should have been in the original application after authorisation is granted, and transferring the task of identifying compliant uses to the users rather than listing them exhaustively in the decision.
• The authors argue that the Commission has undermined REACH by adopting a restrictive view of acceptable alternatives, often accepting claims that an alternative must have the same performance as the hazardous substance, whereas performance can be inferior yet still acceptable for the end-use.

APA

ClientEarth (2021). OPEN LETTER. https://www.clientearth.org/media/gscp14lo/chemsec-clientearth-open-letter-eu-court-judgement-requires-change-in-chemical-authorisation.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. OPEN LETTER. 2021. https://www.clientearth.org/media/gscp14lo/chemsec-clientearth-open-letter-eu-court-judgement-requires-change-in-chemical-authorisation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=OPEN LETTER |date=24 March 2021 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/gscp14lo/chemsec-clientearth-open-letter-eu-court-judgement-requires-change-in-chemical-authorisation.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2021open, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{OPEN LETTER}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/gscp14lo/chemsec-clientearth-open-letter-eu-court-judgement-requires-change-in-chemical-authorisation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }