Publication

This brief looks at how small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) are faring under the EU's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) compliance system seven years after it entered into force. The authors first explain why REACH is a problem for SMEs, scrutinizing seven elements causing particular headaches SMEs. They then ask what the value-added of REACH for SMEs might be. They conclude with a series of recommendations, assuming that the REACH regulation as such will not be modified in any fundamental way in the near future.