PRE congress 2016 in Krakow, Poland
The 63rd PRE congress took place in Krakow, Poland and was attended by over 80 participants from 13 European countries.
During the PRE Economic Committee and General Assembly, PRE members were updated on 2015 PRE production statistics and the different European policies currently being debated in the European institutions (such as the future of the Emissions Trading Scheme or the revision of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive). Mr Dariusz Konieczny, Head of law and technology in the Polish Cement Association, gave a presentation on the Polish, Europe-an and world cement market.
Next year’s congress will take place from 7 to 9 June in Chester, UK, kindly organised by BCC, the British Ceramic Confederation.
PRE activities on Coal Tar Pitch, high temperature
The Coal Tar Pitch High Temperature (CTPHT) was recommended in September 2014 for inclusion in the Annex XIV of Reach, the so-called Authorisation List. It was followed by a public consultation to which PRE replied.
CTPHT is pending addition to the Authorisation list (Annex XIV), with a proposed La-test Application Date (LAD) of 21 Months. PRE has edited a position paper in order to defend a longer LAD. For the “intermediate use” for sliding gates, PRE experts on CTPHT have edited a technical gui-dance document, in order to have this use reco-gnised as an intermediate use (and thereby exempted from authorisation). An external review was conducted by the consultant Bipro. The propo-sals from different sectors will be examined by ECHA and the final technical guidance will be presented on the ECHA website.
For the uses that will not be covered by an exemp-tion, PRE has organised a workshop meeting on 22 June focused on the possible strategies for CTPHT Application for Authorisation (AfA). The companies are invited to develop their own strategy.
NEPSI 10th Anniversary and CMD update
The conference celebrating the 10th Anniver-sary of the NEPSI Agreement took place on 16 June. This event took place in the light of the recently proposed revision of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD) proposing the inclusion of Respirable Crys-talline Silica (RCS). During the event, the Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Mrs Marianne Thyssen delivered a message by video, indicating the European Commission’s support to the NEPSI initiative and its recognition of the Agreement and good practices as an effective tool to implement the coming EU limit value on the ground. The NEPSI Employers, including Cerame-Unie, will have to secure this recognition of NEPSI as an implementation tool of the CMD during the next regulatory steps, the co-decision process between the European Parliament and the Council.
Ceramic BREF questionnaire
The current Ceramic Manufacturing Industry Best Available Techniques (BAT) Reference document, the so-called Ceramic BREF, was published in 2007 and is going to be reviewed officially in 2017. The BREF has gai-ned more importance as it becomes, with the IED Directive, the legal base for the factory permits in the EU. To be prepared for this 2017 revision, the CU BREF Task Force needs a strategy, based on data linked to the emissions and abatements systems used in the ceramic production sites. A data collection is taking place be-tween 15 June and 15 August 2016 with the circulation of a CU BREF questionnaire. The national associations are involved in this exercise and translated versions of the questionnaires are being circulated to the facto-ries. It is important that for companies to take part in this data collection.
Short news and publications
SPIRE brokerage event: On 15 June, the SPIRE brokerage event took take in Brussels. About 150 participants took part. In the morning session, representatives from the European Commission gave an update on the success rate of the 2016 calls and deadlines for the 2017 calls. In the afternoon, a series of project ideas for the 2017 calls were presented. The calls for 2017 are already known, they will be published officially end of July.
Cumulative Cost Assessment (CCA): The CCA Mirror Group met on 20 June with the European Commission and consultants performing the CCA study. The consultants presented their sampling and data collection strategies as well as plan for next steps. Samples are to be composed of refractories’, wall and floor tiles’ and bricks’ and roof tiles’ companies from the regions: Southern Europe, Central Eastern Europe and Northern Western Europe. Consultants are ready to send out the questionnaire and start data collection from mid-June until mid-August. More ceramic companies are requested to confirm their participation in the next weeks, which is necessary to ensure the representativeness of the study.
