The Commission’s Initiative for New Hazard Classes Under CLP: Scientific Evolution or Legal Revolution?

The Commission released on September 20, 2022, a Draft Delegated Regulation[1] amending Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 (‘CLP Regulation’)[2] for the purpose of adding new hazard classes (‘CLP Amendment’). This groundbreaking amendment will add five new hazard classes, namely ED, PBT/vPvB, and PMT/vPvM. The draft is under public consultation until October 18, 2022 (midnight Brussels time). The final adoption is expected by the end of 2022.

In addition to the CLP Amendment, the Commission is also going to issue (likely later in October 2022) a legislative proposal to amend the CLP with some additional provisions, including changes in the procedure for harmonized classification and labeling and provisions related to fold-out multilingual labels. This proposal will be independent from the current CLP Amendment and will be subject to the full legislative procedure involving the European Parliament and the Council. As elaborated below, the choice of the Commission to subject the CLP Amendment to a non-legislative delegated act rather than to the full legislative procedure is problematic and may be subject to legal challenge.

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