Echa took the first steps in drawing up its next recommendation for REACH authorisation, at its meeting, last week. It assessed priorities for inclusion in the REACH authorisation list of candidate list substances and presented the results to its Member State Committee.

Committee chairman, Watze de Wolf, told Chemical Watch that 97 out of the 163 substances on the candidate list are included in this first prioritisation stage. Not considered were the 58 substances, included in previous recommendations, and the eight included in the candidate list, after June 2014. A reduced list of substances, with highest priority for inclusion in the authorisation list (REACH Annex XIV), will be published in November, after the committee’s next meeting, at the end of October.

The list [which will be the seventh draft recommendation for inclusion of substances in Annex XIV] will then be issued for public consultation. Any comments received will be taken into account by the committee, before forwarding its opinion on inclusion of these substances to Echa.

The agency will then decide, which substances to recommend to the European Commission, for inclusion in Annex XIV.

Echa made its last recommendation [its sixth] to the Commission in July. This comprised 15 substances, including four boron compounds and seven phthalate plasticisers. The recommendation was based on the MSC opinion and comments received during the public consultation, which will end on 15 October 2015.