Recent developments in the authorisation of chromium trioxide

In the last month several actions have been done by CEIR and its partners on lobbying regarding Chromium trioxide. At the end despite all efforts voting in European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs took place according to party borders. Driven by some parties in the European parliament (EP) the president of the EP is now forced to comply legal actions against the European Commission decision of granting the authorization dossier – in December last year - for Chromium trioxide for use (1) formulation, (2) functional plating, (4) surface treatment aeronautics and space, (5) surface treatment and (6) passivation of tin plated steel.

We expect that this case will be filed mid of 2021. Court of justice needs to investigate and give its judgement afterwards, which will take round about two to three years (mid 2023/2024). Until this judgement the granted authorization will still be valid. Due to the fact that renewal dossiers need to be filed until mid of 2023 and expiration of the authorization in September 2024, we don´t expect a large impact for manufacturers.

Use (3), functional plating with decorative character, is not affected by this legal action but is still pending. The substitution plan is under evaluation at the moment and we expect a decision mid of 2021. If the substitution plan will be deemed insufficient manufacturers in the EU will face big uncertainties for the future use of Chromium trioxide for use (3).

Due to these uncertainties some downstream users, like some sanitary tapware manufacturers already did, have chosen to apply for an own authorization. For example, Apeiron (https://apeiron-team.eu/) is currently forming a homogenous group of downstream users to start a narrow and strong authorization request for conversion coating on galvanized steel and decorative and functional plating for the sanitary sector.

Timo Kopka
Sanitary Valves Technical Committee Chair