Eurasia Regulatory News

Since Ukraine became an EU candidate in June last year the country has been working on aligning its chemical policy with EU REACH. Last December the country published the law on chemical safety and ma...

Since Ukraine became an EU candidate in June last year the country has been working on aligning its chemical policy with EU REACH. Last December the country published the law on chemical safety and management of chemical products in accordance with the EU legislation.

Furthermore, Ukraine has issued a draft resolution in accordance with the 1998 EU Directive on protection of employees from harmful chemicals where it lists hazardous substances prohibited for production.

Now, Ukraine is aligning its chemical regulations with the EU's CLP system. The country is set to adopt its first technical regulation on hazard classification, labelling, and packaging of chemical products this summer.

Ukraine's recent law on chemical safety and product management laid the groundwork for aligning with EU legislation, outlining basic hazard classification principles and general labelling rules. However, the proposed CLP Regulation takes it a step further by introducing comprehensive rules to protect human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals, ensuring their free circulation in the domestic market, and establishing a national list of approved hazard classifications and labelling elements.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources anticipates that most aspects of the Regulation will come into effect on 9 July 2023. However, certain elements, including identifiers for dangerous chemical products, alternative substance names, packaging and storage requirements, and requests for new information, are expected to be implemented by 29 June 2024.

To gather feedback, the draft CLP Regulation is currently open for comments via the WTO until 20 June, allowing stakeholders to contribute to the regulatory process.

Belarus has approved updated rules (Decree N.71) for the transport of dangerous goods on inland waterways, replacing a 2009 decree. The new rules, which take effect from 1 July, align with the UN Mode...

Belarus has approved updated rules (Decree N.71) for the transport of dangerous goods on inland waterways, replacing a 2009 decree. The new rules, which take effect from 1 July, align with the UN Model Regulations, and several chapters have been revised to reflect this. The United Nations (UN) Model Regulations defines dangerous goods as "substances or articles which are capable of posing a risk to health, safety, property, or the environment and which are shown in the list of dangerous goods in these Regulations or which are classified according to these Regulations".

The decree includes requirements for stakeholders involved in transport, emergency planning procedures, port responsibilities for loading and unloading, placement of cargo onboard vessels, conditions for vessels carrying dangerous goods, and documentation requirements. Specific provisions are included for oil tankers.

Because most of household waste generated in Russia ends up on the landfills, the Russian authorities are now developing updated legislative mechanisms such as extended producer responsibility (ERP) f...

Because most of household waste generated in Russia ends up on the landfills, the Russian authorities are now developing updated legislative mechanisms such as extended producer responsibility (ERP) for waste. The EPR policy for waste has been in place in Russia since 2014, however it didn't concern that packaging material that corresponds to 50% of all generated waste. 

Starting from January 1, 2025, all manufacturers and importers of packaging material will be obliged to recycle 100% of the packaging waste. In cases where the recycling rates won’t be met by the manufacturer, a penalty eco-fee will be applied. The eco-fee will be calculated as the difference between the standard and the accumulated volume of recycled waste times two.  For products and containers that are difficult to recycle, the eco-fee rate will be higher. Furthermore, according to the draft law, the recycling of waste will be more controlled. The update EPR for waste implies placing responsibility for package recycling from manufacturers and importers of products (4 millions) to only those manufacturing packages and importing them (2 500 only). This will make it much easier to keep track of how well companies are complying with the update EPR.  

Ukrainian Ministry of Health has published a draft proposal to ban the chemical triclosan in production of plastic and food contact materials. Triclosan is an anti-bacterial chemical commonly used in ...

Ukrainian Ministry of Health has published a draft proposal to ban the chemical triclosan in production of plastic and food contact materials. Triclosan is an anti-bacterial chemical commonly used in kitchenware. The draft proposal suggests that a transitional period: all products containing triclosan put into circulation before 1st January 2023 are allowed to be on the market until 1st January 2024. The draft regulation is open for public commentaries until 17th of September. If the document will be approved, it will come into force three months after its official publication. 

The aim of this draft proposal is to bring safety requirements for FCMs closer to the compliance requirements of the European Union.  

Furthermore, Ukrainian Ministry of Health proposes new limitations on lead and cadmium in FCMs made of ceramic. The order, however, includes that ceramics put into circulation before the order comes into force, can stay in circulation. 

The new limitations are demonstrated in the table below: 

If the proposal will get approved, the expected date of its entry into force is 6 months. 

The entry into force date of Eurasia REACH has been postponed. The regulation was initially planned to come into force on 2nd June 2021.  This postpone is mainly due to the delay of the appro...

The entry into force date of Eurasia REACH has been postponed. The regulation was initially planned to come into force on 2nd June 2021.  This postpone is mainly due to the delay of the approvement of the second part of Eurasia REACH regulation in which contains the following information:

• The procedure for the formation and maintenance of the EAEU register of chemical substances.
• The procedure for the notification of New Chemicals.

The authorities underline that a new date for regulation’s entry into force will depend on whenever the second part of the regulation will be approved. Without this, the regulation cannot come into force.

In February this year, a draft of the second part of the regulation was published for public discussion on the EAEU Commission’s website. Many industries expressed and submitted their comments to the EAEU Commission before the deadline on 1st of April 2021.

The EAEU Commission is expected to review the commentaries and approve the second part of the regulation in the near future. When this happens, a new entry into force date of Eurasia REACH will be released.  

The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has notified the draft resolution, On Approval of the Technical Regulation on Safety of Chemical Products, to the WTO. This dr...

The Ministry for Development of Economy, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine has notified the draft resolution, On Approval of the Technical Regulation on Safety of Chemical Products, to the WTO. This draft resolution lists out requirements for registration, assessment, authorization and restriction of chemicals and will come into force after the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Chemical Safety”.

The draft Resolution aims to bring the provisions of the Technical Regulation in line with Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the European Council of 18 December 2006 on REACH and sharing the goal of improving the protection of human health and the environment through the better and earlier identification of the intrinsic properties of chemical substances.

The adoption of the technical regulation implies that all chemical substances presented in the Ukrainian market are subject to compliance with this regulation. The responsibility will be upon Ukrainian manufacturers, importers as well as to non-Ukrainian manufacturers and exporters who circulate substances in Ukraine. However, there are some exceptions such as substances in transit.

According to the draft regulation, the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Rights Protection will be responsible for the implementation and compliance with the regulation. No dates have been confirmed for implementation at this stage.

The Eurasian Economic Commission has published an updated draft of the 2nd tier of Eurasian Technical Regulation TR 041/2017 on “Safety of Chemical Products” (Eurasia REACH). The draft...

The Eurasian Economic Commission has published an updated draft of the 2nd tier of Eurasian Technical Regulation TR 041/2017 on “Safety of Chemical Products” (Eurasia REACH). The draft is available for public discussion until the 1st of April 2021.

The 2nd tier of the regulation contains detailed information on the procedure of formation and maintenance of the register of chemical substances and the procedure of notification of new chemicals.

The reason for the delay of regulation’s 2nd tier adaptation and recent publication of an updated draft was due to the changes in Appendix No. 7, “Procedure for the formation and maintenance of the register”.  Appendix No. 7 contains a list of chemicals classified as carcinogens, mutagens, and reprotoxicants of hazard classes 1 and 2. This appendix was developed to facilitate the hazard classification procedure for industry representatives but created disagreement which resulted in a considerable delay in the adaptation of the entire regulation.

The TR 041 regulation was initially expected to enter into force 2nd of June 2021, however, the date will most likely be postponed. The new date of regulation’s entry into force depends on the date of entry into force of the 2nd tier documents.

The draft of the 2nd tier documents is available here (in Russian). 

Update: 2021-02-18