The results of the SPORT partnership initiative to test the workability of the proposed REACH regulation were published on 5th July. The results confirmed the need to ’adjust the legislative text’, as well as highlighting the need to adapt organisational structures in industry and the Member States, and provide for mechanisms to involve downstream users.

Speaking at the press conference launching the results, Erwin Tomschik, the UEAPME representative on the partnership, stressed that the results demonstrated the need to amend the current proposals, which would have a more acute affect on SMEs.

SPORT (the Strategic Partnership On Reach Testing) was a partnership between the European Commission, Member States and industry formed to jointly test out REACH legislation before it enters into force. In 8 sub-projects it simulated REACH pre-registration, registration and dossier evaluation of various chemicals and their downstream uses. The SPORT Steering Group consists of delegates from the European Commission, Member States and business organisations (Cefic, UEAPME, UNICE and DUCC).

The overall goal of the SPORT exercise was to test the workability of the registration and dossier evaluation steps of the REACH proposal, identify solutions where problems are found, to feed solutions into the REACH Implementation Projects, and improve the understanding about REACH.

The SPORT report contains a description of the testing results and 39 recommendations agreed among the partners. The recommendations give input into the ongoing work on REACH Implementation Projects (RIPs) on guidance tools and documents, call for action to adjust or clarify the legislative text and to adapt organisational structures in industry and the Member States. Furthermore, the report suggests providing for mechanisms to involve downstream users and urges the actors to prepare themselves in time.