What is going to change
From the United Kingdom’s withdrawal onwards, the country will be considered as a third country. This means that companies based in the UK and holding a Marketing Authorisation for biocidal products in accordance with the BPR will have to transfer said authorisation to an EU-27 country (or EEA, European Economic Area). If they do not, the former authorisation will cease to be valid. This process should begin before the UK’s exit, via a notification prior to the implementation.
A UK-based company listed as a supplier in accordance with Article 95 of the BPR will have to appoint a representative based in the EU-27, like any other third country. Likewise, a supplier based in a third country who has for representative a UK-based entity will have to change for an EU-27 representative. To do so, ECHA recommends submitting a “request for correction” one month before the effective date of Brexit. The supplier will otherwise not be listed anymore and their biocidal products will not be sold on the European market.
Some companies currently have an on-going procedure with the UK acting as evaluating Competent Authority or reference Member State. In these cases, ECHA recommends these companies to evaluate if said authority will finish before the end of March and, in the hypothesis where they will not, to transfer the file to another member state. Here, we keep the end of March as the reference for Brexit. As a matter of fact, the United Kingdom will not be authorised to be reference Member State nor evaluating Competent Authority from the day the Brexit starts, whether there is a transition period or not.
The United Kingdom has also delivered a number of simplified authorisations concerning low risk biocidal products, which were then notified to other Member States. From the exit date onwards, these authorisations will cease to be valid. Consequently, affected companies will have to file new authorisation requests through the simplified procedure with another EU-27 country before Brexit.
What will remain the same
British companies which had registered data in the Register for Biocidal Products (R4PB) will still have access to it, the only difference is that they will be registered as a third country instead of a Member State. The collected data will also remain protected, as is the case for any other company.
Nothing changes regarding the substances that have already been evaluated by the United Kingdom. The applications for mutual recognition obtained before Brexit with the UK as reference Member State will still be valid after Brexit.
Status of negotiations
Tomorrow, Tuesday 15th January, the British Parliament will vote on whether or not they accept the deal that Theresa May and the European Union have been negotiating these past months. If the text is voted down, the government will then have 3 days to put forward a new proposal.
Want to know more about Brexit and the steps to take regarding biocidal products?
For more information, do not hesitate to contact our expert, Mr. Fang Zhou by phone at : +33 1 83 64 20 54 for Europe, or +1 (778) 234 1607 for North America or even send him an email at contact@ecomundo.eu
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