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ADCR announces new cost structure for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) members
ADCR announces new cost structure for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) members
A revision to the ADCR consortium cost structure has been agreed by its Steering Committee to provide certainty to SMEs in the Aerospace and Defence (A&D) sector supply chain.
The ADCR consortium has been set up to address the continued use of chromates in the Aerospace and Defence sector where substitution is not possible and encompasses the entire A&D supply chain. Although applications will be submitted by upstream stakeholders, dossier preparation costs and application fees will be use-specific and will be shared by paying ADCR members who are end-users and are have an interest in that use.
ADCR’s cost sharing arrangements intentionally mean that large companies bear a larger part of the costs than SMEs, as it is recognised that SMEs may not have the financial and/or resource capacity of larger companies.
The participation of as many SMEs as possible in ADCR is extremely important. SMEs are vital links in the supply chain and will hold essential information on worker exposure and environmental releases of Cr(VI). SMEs can significantly benefit from their membership of ADCR as they will have the support of their customers in meeting their legal obligations in relation to REACH Authorisation.
SMEs have expressed that they would much appreciate certainty from the outset as to the costs of applying for (re-)authorisation of the A&D uses of chromates. In response to this feedback, ADCR can announce that its Steering Committee has decided to review the terms of membership for SMEs and introduce a new cost structure. Its key parameters include:
• For SMEs, there will be a modest fixed cost per use applied for. As a result, each SME will be able to estimate its overall authorisation cost by simply knowing how many A&D Cr(VI) uses they wish to support;
• For SMEs, no late-joining membership fees will apply.
The ADCR Consortium Agreement now reflects the new SME cost structure and all companies that had previously expressed an interest in joining the ADCR and have signed the relevant Memorandum of Understanding have been advised of the new cost structure.
Any SME with an interest in joining the ADCR who wishes to get more details about on the new cost structure should contact ADCR-info@rpaltd.co.uk.
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On 20 April 2023, the Court of Justice of the EU issued its judgment in Case C-144/21 European Parliament v European Commission . The case concerned an action brought by the Parliament for the annulment of the Commission's Implementing Decision of 18 December 2020 granting authorisation of certain uses of chromium trioxide (the original CTAC authorisation). As expected, the Court annulled the authorisation decision, but maintained the effects of the decision until the Commission issues a replacement decision. This will very likely be a rejection of the authorisation, as directed by the Court in the present judgment. The judgment followed the Opinion of the Advocate General of 27 October 2022 , and is based on the following factors: Lack of representativeness, reliability and completeness of the submitted worker exposure data, leading to an insufficient risk assessment, based on which the Commission was not in a position to conclude that the socio-economic benefits of the uses in question outweighed their risks to human health. Failure by the Commission to ascertain that there were no suitable alternatives for the uses in question. The Court also considered that the conditions had to be met at the time the decision was adopted. This meant that the Commission could not remedy the lack of sufficient data by providing the obligation for applicants for authorisation to provide additional information in the review reports, such as exposure scenarios and related risk management measures, which were lacking in the risk assessment. However, the Court also stipulated that the effects are to be maintained for only one year from the date of the judgment, which means in practice that the Commission only has until 20 April 2024 to issue its replacement decision. This limit was unexpected; it was not included in the AG's opinion, but has likely been included in order to emphasise the seriousness of the above-described issues with the annulled authorisation, and ensure that these are remedied in future applications, whilst pushing the Commission to take corrective action as soon as possible via the replacement decision.