Latest updates on the PFAS restriction proposal (GEN – 1457.00)

30 January 2023

GEN – 1457.00. On 13 January, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) received the PFASs restriction proposal submitted by the five national authorities: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Latest Updates and next steps

On 13 January, ECHA received the PFASs restriction proposal submitted by the five national authorities.

Please note below some important dates mentioned in the ECHA’s press release:

7 February 2023: the proposal and supporting documents are made available in ECHA website. On the same date, a hybrid media conference will be organised by the national authorities in Brussels (11:00 to 12:30 CET).
22 March 2023: start of a six-month open consultation.
5 April 2023: online information session to explain the restriction process.

Plan d’actions Ministériel sur les PFAS

On 17 January, the French Ministry of Environment published its PFAS Action Plan (‘Plan d’actions Ministériel sur les PFAS’) which includes establishing safe environmental concentration limits, increasing monitoring and significantly reducing industrial emissions.

The Action Plan proposes six actions:

I. to set standards for industrial emissions and environmental concentrations
II. to facilitate a broad ban at the EU level focused on the use and market access
III. to improve knowledge of emissions and environmental contamination
IV. to significantly reduce emissions from industrial sites
V. to ensure the transparency of all information generated by the actions
VI. to integrate the actions into the next micro-pollutants plan.

Under action I, the plan states that there are too few standards for industrial emissions and environmental concentrations. As a result, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) has been mandated to research these to facilitate prioritisation of PFASs and provide a sound legal basis for any risk management measures.

Consequences and link to PFAS restriction proposal

The French Action Plan gives explicit support to the wider EU PFAS restriction proposal by Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, saying that a broad ban of uses is needed at EU level to tackle the risks of products containing the chemicals. It is a strong encouragement for the further actions on PFAS at EU level.

Recommended actions

Interested Members are invited to monitor the ECHA website to access the proposal once published and to attend the online information session. Comments on the proposal are welcome to develop a position in the context of the six-month open consultation.