PIC export notifications to Maghreb

Dear Ms Toulemonde,

Thank you for your below message dated 12 April 2021.

We hereby acknowledge receipt of your application for access to documents
under Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, which has been registered on 14 April
2021 under reference ATD/022/2021.

Best regards,

Access to documents team

European Chemicals Agency

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individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message in
error, please notify the author as soon as possible and delete the
message.

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Dear Ms Toulemonde,

We refer to your application for access to documents registered on 14
April 2021 under the above-mentioned reference number, in which you seek
access to some information contained in the PIC export notifications
regarding the importing countries Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco from
01/01/2019 to 01/03/2021.

Under Regulation (EU) No 649/2012 (the “PIC Regulation”) exporters based
in an EU Member State have to notify their intention to export certain
chemicals to a non-EU country at the latest 35 days before the first
export is due to take place in a given calendar year. A detailed
explanation on the export notification procedure under the PIC Regulation
can be found via the following link:
[1]https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/prior....

On ECHA’s website you can search information on the export notifications
by year, exporting EU member state, non-EU importing country, chemical
and/or mixture name, and type of product (i.e. substance, mixture or
article). A refined search is also possible by using multiple search
criteria. You can also export your search results in XML or CSV formats,
in case you wish to further work them. You can find the available
information via the following link:
[2]https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-ch....

In accordance with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 (the “ATD
Regulation”), we would kindly ask you to clarify the scope of your
request, and in particular whether the time frame indicated by you (i.e. a
general reference to the period 01/01/2019 to 01/03/2021) would
concern (i) the expected date of the first export indicated by the
exporter in the notifications or (ii) the period in which the export
notifications were submitted to/processed by ECHA.

In this respect, we would also like to anticipate that your application
concerns a very long timeframe and a very large number of documents
originating from third parties which need to be assessed individually.

For example, based on our preliminary assessment, the number of export
notifications that would fall under option (i) above is approximately
1300, originating from ca. 170 third parties. As regards option (ii) an
additional research would need to be conducted on ECHA’s database to
assess the volume of documents and third parties concerned. Therefore,
your clarification is needed to process your request.

ECHA is committed to treat requests under the ATD Regulation within the
shortest timeframe possible. However, the analysis of the documents
requested by you,
together with the need to consult the third parties concerned
in accordance with Article 4(4) of the ATD Regulation,
cannot be expected to be completed within the normal time limits set out
in Article 7 of that Regulation.

Article 6(3) of the ATD Regulation provides that in the event of an
application relating to a very long document or to very large number of
documents, the institution concerned may confer with the applicant
informally, with a view to finding a fair solution.

On this basis, we would kindly ask you to provide us elements allowing us
to clarify and narrow down the scope of your request, for example by
specifically listing the PIC chemicals of your interest and by limiting
the timeframe covered, so as to reduce it to a manageable amount of
documents.

As set out in the Management Board decision on the implementation of the
ATD Regulation in ECHA ([3]MB/12/2008 final), the deadline for replying to
your request will run from the time we have received your clarification.
We would appreciate receiving your clarification by Wednesday 29 April
2021. If you do not contact us within this timeframe your request will be
considered as closed and it will not be further processed.

In order to facilitate an agreement on a fair solution within the meaning
of Article 6(3) of the ATD Regulation, we are available to discuss the
scope of your request via a phone-conference. If you agree, please
provide your contact details in order to arrange the technicalities.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

Access to documents team

European Chemicals Agency

This e-mail, including any files, is intended for the use of the
individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message in
error, please notify the author as soon as possible and delete the message

References

Visible links
1. https://echa.europa.eu/regulations/prior...
2. https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-ch...
3. https://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/1...

Dear Ms Toulemonde,

Thank you for your message.

Based on your feedback, we reiterate our proposal to set-up a teleconference which would facilitate our discussion on the scope of the request with a view to find a fair solution in accordance with Article 6(3) of the ATD Regulation.

The teleconference could also be held in French, should you prefer so.

We could propose the following time slots:

• Wednesday 28 April, 10.00 Helsinki time (EET)
• Wednesday 28 April, 11.30 EET
• Thursday 29 April, 9.30 EET
• Thursday 29 April, 14.00 EET
• Friday 30 April, 13.00 EET
• Friday 30 April, 14.00 EET

To that end, you are kindly invited to confirm your availability for one of the indicated timeslots, and, if so, to provide your contact details with a separate communication to this email address.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Best regards,

Access to documents team
European Chemicals Agency

This e-mail, including any files, is intended for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message in error, please notify the author as soon as possible and delete the message

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Dear Ms Toulemonde,

Please find here below our records of the main content and conclusions of
the discussions at our teleconferences of 30 April and 5 May 2021, as well
as through the follow-up email exchange with regard to the specific
information that you requested.

May we kindly ask you to confirm and, where needed, clarify/amend the
below summary, at your earliest convenience, in the view to settle the
final scope and approach for the processing of your request in subject?

Documents falling within the scope of your request:

o You confirmed that you are interested in validated PIC export
notifications, concerning exports foreseen to take place in the whole
calendar year 2020 only, and to the following importing countries:
Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia.

o You indicated that you are only interested in export notifications
for chemicals that are listed under the PIC Regulation due to their
severe restrictions or banning under the category “pesticide” (p), and
in particular the sub-category “pesticide in the group of plant
protection products” (p(1)). Therefore, only the export notifications
concerning chemicals listed at least under sub-category p(1) fall
within the scope of your request.

o In addition, you indicated that you are only interested in export
notifications made by EU exporters with “pesticide” as “Foreseen
category (of use) in the importing country” (Section 3.3 of export
notifications); this means that any export notifications made only for
“Industrial chemical” as “Foreseen category (of use) in the importing
country” will be excluded from the scope of your request.

o Finally, you indicated that you want to exclude from the scope of your
request any export notifications relating to uses which are clearly
non-agricultural based on the information provided by exporters under
“Foreseen use in the importing country” (free text field under Section
3.3 of export notifications). As concrete examples, you confirmed that
export notifications related to foreseen uses such as cleaning and/or
disinfection (e.g. of medical devices, of floors/walls/equipment incl.
for animals housing), wood protection/preservation, or in veterinary
applications, should be excluded.

Based on the above, ECHA has preliminary identified a total of ca. 148
export notifications falling within the scope of your request.

Specific information requested and format of the requested document:

o Regarding the specific information in the export notifications, you
agree to limit the scope of your request to the following:

o Importing Party (i.e. importing country)

o Identity of the chemical to be exported, i.e.:

o Common name (section 1.1)
o CAS number (section 1.3.1)
o When applicable:

+ “Trade name and name of the mixture” (section 2.1)
+ For each substance in the mixture that is subject to the
export notification, concentration (%) and information as
specified under SECTION 1 (section 2.5)

o Expected yearly amount of the substance or mixture (kg/l per year)
(section 3.2)

o Foreseen use in the importing country (section 3.3)

o Name and address of the exporter (section 3.5) (Note: the telephone,
fax and email of the exporters are out of the scope of the request)

o In order to facilitate the processing of your application, you agree
to limit your request to a single document containing the requested
information from the export notifications directly extracted from the
ePIC database

Timeline:

Given the high number of export notifications (ca. 148) falling within the
scope of your request, and the additional fact that it concerns ca. 42
third parties the majority of which will have to be consulted based on
Article 4(4) of the ATD Regulation, the following approach and timeline
was agreed:

o ECHA will process the request in batches, for both launching the
necessary third party consultations and providing you with a reply
on the requested information from export notifications;
o Based on the above, and depending on the outcome of the third party
consultations, ECHA is aiming at completing the request by the end
of October 2021.

Best regards,

PIC Operations team

European Chemicals Agency

This e-mail, including any files, is intended for the use of the
individual to whom it is addressed. If you have received this message in
error, please notify the author as soon as possible and delete the message

From: ECHA ATD <[ECHA request email]>
Sent: 22 April 2021 14:52
To: [FOI #9306 email]
Cc: ECHA ATD <[ECHA request email]>; ECHA PIC
<[email address]>
Subject: Your request for access to documents - Ref. ATD/022/2021