CHIARA MACCHI
PIC Coordinator, European Chemicals Agency, Annankatu 18, P.O. Box 400, FI-00120 Helsinki, Finland

Abstract

To catch up with amendments and to attain new objectives, the EU has consolidated a new legislative text for the former EC Regulation No 689/2008 concerning the export and import of dangerous chemicals. Having entered into force in August 2012, it will apply for industry from 1 March 2014 onwards.

The Regulation is commonly known as PIC because it is the implementation within the European Union of the Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade. The recast PIC Regulation (EU) No 649/2012 aims to protect human health and the environment in a more effective way. It is now aligned with the REACH and CLP Regulations and adapted to comitology provisions. It establishes the transfer in 2014 of technical, scientific and administrative aspects of the operation of the Regulation from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre to the European Chemicals Agency. 

The objective of the PIC Regulation is to administer the import and export of certain hazardous chemicals and places obligations on companies who wish to export these chemicals to non-EU countries. It requires shared responsibility and cooperation in the international trade of hazardous chemicals, and it obliges the exchange of information on how to safely store, transport, use and dispose of hazardous chemicals to importing countries.
The Regulation applies to banned or severely restricted chemicals listed in ...