On 3 September 2014, the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) circulated internally a draft version 2.0 of the guidance document on active substances and suppliers - Article 95 list of the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR). The intention of Article 95, as described in recitals 8 and 58 of the BPR, is to ''ensure the equal treatment of persons placing active substance on the market'' and to establish a ''level playing field [..] on the market for existing active substances''.
The purpose of the Agency in this inter-institutional consultation is to keep transparency, whereby interested partners are given the opportunity to provide their feedback and comments, so that latter are reflected in the content of the document. The update of existing guidance or the development of new ones follow three imporant steps:
- ECHA consults the Partner Expert Group (PEG);
- ECHA's Committees and/or Forum are consulted, where needed;
- ECHA concludes the process by consulting the European Commission and the relevant Competent Authorities (CAs).
The current version of the guidance on Article 95 of the BPR is in its final stage - a draft to the CAs; the document can be found here.
