European Defence Agency

Aligning National Policies and Procedures

Granting defence exemptions is first and foremost a national responsibility. However, REACH is clearly an area where a harmonised approach towards granting or denying of national defence exemptions would contribute to a level playing field for European defence industries and hence support the creation of an open and transparent European Defence Equipment Market and the maintenance and development of a capable and capability-driven European Defence Technological and Industrial Base providing our Armed Forces with the right defence equipment to meet their operational requirements.

In order to align and harmonise their national exemption policies and procedures, the EDA's participating Member States agreed on 19 March 2010 on a Steering Board Decision on REACH - National Defence Exemptions aiming at the setting of common standards for granting defence exemptions, at the provision of transparency about national policies and procedures and eventually at an appropriate acknowledgment of other Member States' defence exemptions.

By adopting this decision, participating Member States agreed to accept the safeguard and traceability standards imposed by REACH as a benchmark for their respective national procedures. Emphasising the need for transparency about national policies and procedures, they tasked the EDA to establish a publicly accessible web-portal to post the main characteristics of their national proceedings.

On the basis of the Steering Board Decision and on the so created transparency, pMS will - over time - work towards mutual acknowledgement of defence exemptions.

As the REACH Regulation is also applicable in countries that do not participate in the EDA, the Steering Board decided to invite such countries to adopt the principles of the Steering Board Decision on REACH - National Defence Exemptions.

The implementation of the decision will be reviewed on an annual basis starting from 2011.