Reach IT system may not be ready in time - Cefic

31 May 2007 16:06  [Source: ICIS news]

By Philippa Jones

 

PARIS (ICIS news)--The IT systems that will manage Reach may not be ready in time for its launch, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) said on Thursday.

 

Lena Perenius, director of Cefic’s Reach unit, said she did not know if the European Commission's (EC's) software would be up and running by Friday June 1.

 

Perenius suggested the commission was still discussing the issue internally, while the EC was unable to elaborate any further.

 

Petteri Makela, from the commission’s Reach unit, declined to give details about specific aspects of the system, including the key IUCLID5 database which will be used for the registration of chemicals, and the EC's Reach implementation project (RIP3.01).

 

The latter will be crucial to organising the legislation as it provides navigator tools linked to guidance documents.

 

Makela said simply that the main website would be launched on time.

 

“The (European Chemical) agency website will be launched on June 1 and provide a single access point to Reach information, guidance and tools,” he said.

 

Perenius urged the commission to get the systems ready as soon as possible, stressing the need for chemical companies to begin storing data for the pre-registration phase immediately.

 

She said she was fairly confident that the final product, when it emerged, would meet the needs of the industry as Cefic had participated in the testing of different versions was “more or less” satisfied with what it had seen.

 

“We have given our comments [to the Commission] and we expect them to be taken into account,” said Perenius.

 

She warned that if there were months of delay in the commission rolling out the software, then chemical companies would need an extension to the pre-registration phase.

 

They currently have until December 2008 to pre-register up to around 30,000 compounds.

 

By: Philippa Jones
+44 20 8652 3214

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