Abstract: the first BPR Enforcement Group (BEG) meeting will be held on 15 March 2016 which will focus on the enforcement of Article 95(2) for biocidal products and Article 94(2) for treated articles. With Several deadlines approaching, the enforcement of BPR is moving to a key period, which means that the companies of Biocidal Products and Treated Articles should pay close attention to the enforcement of BPR.

It has been more than 2 years since Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR, Regulation (EU) 528/2012) applied from 1 September 2013. Transitional period of the Regulation will come to an end and compliance deadlines of several articles are approaching. Although the BPR regulation has been issued for 2 years, some manufacturers and importers have paid little attention to compliance due to loose enforcement and supervision.

Indeed, the enforcement of BRP has to deal with high law enforcement difficulty between Member States. However, according to the document issued by European Commission in September 2015, a BPR Enforcement Group (BEG) as a working group of the Competent Authorities is promoted during the 61^th Competent Authorities (CA) meeting. The establishment of this working group would contribute to the co-operation on enforcement of BPR and advocate supervision of biocidal products. The 61^th Competent Authorities (CA) meeting also determined that BEG shall meet about 2-4 times per year in Brussels or any determined meeting place. The BEG members will be appointed by the Member States, and stakeholders will be invited to attend regular meetings with the BEG as well. Moreover, the meeting also advised that the first meeting of the BEG shall be prior to be held in the coming years, which fully reflects that the enforcement of BPR is around the corner.

So far, there are two important BRP deadlines for manufacturers and importers, the deadline of enforcement of Article 95(2) for biocidal products on 1^st September 2015, and the deadline of enforcement of the Article 94(2) for treated articles on 1^st September 2016. According to the 62^th CA meeting in November 2015, it was suggested that the major task of the BEG would be also the enforcement of the deadlines established in Article 95(2) for biocidal products and Article 94(2) for treated articles as mentioned above.

In addition, the BEG is supposed to develop and accomplish BRP enforcement and supervision and the integration within or co-operation with other enforcement platforms, particularly, the ECHA Forum. Since member states all have positive attitude towards integrating biocides enforcement tasks into ECHA’s Forum to utilize the current resource, the BEG meetings should therefore be organised following meetings of the Forum in Helsinki. In 2016, 3 meetings of the ECHA Forums are scheduled, separately on 15-17 March, 14-16 June and 7-11 November. A half-day or a full-day could be used for the BEG meetings.

According to the latest news, The Chair of the BEG meeting will be Dr Pierre Choraine from the European Commission and the first BEG meeting will take place on 15 March 2016. The real enforcement is coming around, manufacturers and importers should really take deadlines seriously.

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