Document dYMp66m2G2Gbq1jr68mb9j5M0

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL ENVIRONMENT Circular Economy & Green Grnwth Sustainable Chemicals - Ref. Ares(2020)3336381 - 26/06/2020 Bmssels ENV B2Q!Ares(2020) Thank you for your letter, in which you raise the concerns of EU textiles companies as regards the amendment of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 2019/1021 (the POPs Regulation) to include PFOA, its salts and PFOA-related compounds. The Commission Delegated Regulation follows the decision of the Conference of the Parties of the Stockholm Convention. The assessment performed by the POP Review Committee indicated that alternatives to PFOA were available for the uses in medical textiles. It was not possible for the Commission to add exemptions that are not available under the Convention. However, Article 4(2) of the POPs Regulation introduces an exemption for articles "already in use" which would apply to medical textiles produced before the date ofentJy into application of the PFOA listing (4 July) and not covered by other exemptions. We discussed in detail the interpretation of this exemption in the meeting ofthe POPs CAs on 9 June and we will publish a claiification shortly. Yours faithfully, e-signed Commission europeenne/Europese Commissie, 1049Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIE - Tel +32 2299111 1 Office:j J- Tel. direct line @ec.europa.eu Electronically signed on 25/06/2020 2154 (UTC02) in accordance with article 4.2 (validity ofelectronic documents) ofCommission Decision 2004/563