By now ECHA has published some of the guidelines regarding Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European parliament and the European council of 18.12.2006 for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals, previously only available in the English, in 22 other European languages. ECHA has translated guidance on information requirements, chemical safety assessment, substances in articles, registration, and downstream user obligations. The documents provide essential information to manufacturers and importers of chemicals as well as users of chemicals and producers of articles (end-user goods) on how to comply with REACH legislation. Ana Wood asked Martin Ahlhaus, Lawyer, Noerr LLP, about ECHA's obligation regarding the translation of such documents.

CHEManager Europe: ECHA started to publish REACH Guidance documents in other languages than English. Is there a legal obligation for ECHA to publish translated versions of other available Guidance documents, too?

M. A. Ahlhaus: Yes, ECHA has to publish all guidance documents in all official EU languages according to Regulation (EC) No 1/1958. All documents of general application such as REACH Guidance documents shall be drafted in all official EC languages.

ECHA points out that translation is not required for guidelines addressed to specialists. Is that correct?

M. A. Ahlhaus: No. Of course, on one hand translation requirements apply to documents of general application only. Hence, documents addressed to a defined group of people are not affected and can be published in whatever language is appropriate. On the other hand, however, REACH guidance documents are addressed to an indefinite group of people and should ensure equal REACH implementation in all member states and for all potentially affected companies. This is why ECHA cannot differentiate regarding the translation of guidance documents and has to publish each guidance document in all official EC languages.
Furthermore, REACH sets forth obligations irrespective of the available knowledge or given specialization. REACH applies to companies working in varied sectors regardless if they employ specialized persons or not. These companies are obliged to implement REACH. And to avoid risks and sanctions all companies have to consider published ECHA guidelines, too. Thus, specialization cannot be a criterion to decide which guidance documents or parts thereof should be translated into all official EC languages.

Does this translation obligation also cover REACH IT formats and IUCLID 5?

M. A. Ahlhaus: Yes, these are documents of general application in terms of Art 4 Regulation (EC) No 1/1958. Art 111 REACH outlines that ECHA specifies the IT-formats which have to be used for administrative procedures, such as registration of substances. Hence, those IT instruments are documents of general application since they are legally binding for the users and therefore addressed to an indefinite group of people.

Nevertheless, the list of substances regarding harmonized classification and labeling according to the Annex of the CLP-Regulation only contains the English substance names even though all other parts of the regulation have been translated for publication in the Official Journal. Don't the same legal principles apply to this list?

M. A. Ahlhaus: No, there is no legal requirement to translate the substances named in the table according to No 3.1 of Annex IV of the CLP Regulation into all official EU languages. The substances terms are legally outlined in English under the headline "International Chemical Identification". Translation requirements according to Art 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1/1958 ensure that all EU citizens do have the chance to take notice of regulations before they are obliged to comply with it. This aim is not missed as far as the English identification of substances is complemented by further identifiers such as EC or CAS numbers like in the aforementioned Annex of the CLP regulation.