After years of deliberations, on 29 February 2024 the REACh Regulatory Committee approved the application submitted by the Fachverband Galvanisierte Kunststoffe (FGK) in the Zentralverband Oberflächentechnik (ZVO) for the use of chromium trioxide for the coating of plastics for automotive applications. The application was submitted by Gerhardi Kunststofftechnik GmbH as the lead company.
After the application (Gerhardi Joint Application) had already been submitted on February 22, 2016, a substitution plan was drawn up at the subsequent request of the EU Commission and submitted on December 8, 2020. On June 28, 2021, this was classified as "credible" by the European Chemicals Agency. Since then, however, the application has been blocked in the REACh Regulatory Committee, which is made up of representatives of the EU member states and the EU Commission.
In recent weeks, the consortium has provided additional information at the request of the EU Commission and made certain concessions to enable approval in the REACh Regulatory Committee. Among other things, the end of the review period has now been brought forward to September 21, 2029. A review report must be submitted by March 21, 2028, outlining the extent to which the plans set out in the substitution plan have been implemented. The next step will now be publication in the Official Journal of the European Union over the next few weeks and thus official approval for the use of chromium trioxide. Over the next few weeks, the FGK will be looking at how the conditions will be processed and standardized and agreeing on a procedure that is as uniform as possible.
