Yesterday, the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of the Swedish Government, effectively retracting the authorisation which was deemed illegal.
Additionally, the ruling contains several guiding principles that are of very high interest to anyone interested in chemicals policy, for example:
(*) The burden to prove that the alternatives are not available is on the company applying for the authorisation;
(*) The Commission does not have the right to grant authorisation if, at the date of adoption, there are still uncertainties (that are not negligible) about the availability of safer alternatives;
(*) The Commission mustn’t necessarily follow the advice coming from the scientific committees involved in the process; the Commission is responsible for checking the coherence, relevance and accuracy of the opinions from the scientific committees;
(*) The Commission has to verify a sufficient amount of information that is substantial and reliable to be able to conclude that no suitable alternatives are available.