Document ypoKEevO84VznEeaL7NnxV8NX

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL ENVIRONMENT Circular Economy & Green Growth Sustainable Chemicals Head ofUnit - Ref.Ares(2020)3229304 -2W3/2020 Bmssels ENV.B.2 /ARES(2020) Policy SEMI Europe Rue de la Science 14 1040 Bmssels E-mail: i------sef,.=fil.or..., Thank you for your letter, in which you raise the concerns ofEU semiconductor industry as regards the inclusion of PFOA, its salts and PFOA-related compounds in Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 2019/1021 (the POPs Regulation), recently published in the Official Journal1, and the deletion of the conesponding REACH restriction (entry 68 of Annex XVII to REACH), which is under discussion in the REACH Committee. In the amendment of Annex I to the POPs Regulation to include PFOA the Commission followed the decision of the Conference of the Patties of the Stockholm Convention. In April 2019, just before the Conference of the Pa1ties, SEMI sent to the Commission a position paper announcing that a derogation for the equipment used to manufacture semiconductors and for refurbishment paits was no longer needed. A SEMI representative gave the same infonnation dUiing the discussion on the listing of PFOA in that Conference of the Patties. This is the reason why the derogation was not granted under the Stockholm Convention and, as a consequence, has not been granted under the POPs Regulation. Concerning the setting of an Unintentional Trace Contaminant (UTC) limit value, the Commission has always applied the limit value of the REACH restriction as UTC in the POPs Regulation, when such value had been specified in a REACH restriction. UTCs higher than the liinit values of REACH restrictions have only been introduced where duly justified, upon submission of specific info1mation and after discussion with the POPs Competent Authorities. The Commission did not receive any justification for a higher UTC limit value for semiconductors equipment. 1 https://em-lex.emopa.eu/eli/reg del/2020/784/oj Commission europeenne/Europese Commissie, 1049Bruxelles/Brussel, BELGIQUE/BELGIE - Tel +32 22991111 Officej J- Tel. direct line @ec.europa.eu I would like to draw your attention to Article 4(2) of the POPs Regulation, which introduces an exemption for articles already in use, which would apply to equipment for semiconductor production produced before the entry into application (4 July 2020). The interpretation of this exemption was discussed in a recent meeting of the POPs Competent Authorities and the Commission will soon publish a clarification. It is a regulatory practice of the Commission to delete specific entries of Annex XVII to REACH, once a substance listed in that Annex is included at a later stage in the Annexes to the POPs Regulation. Yours sincerely, (e-signed) 2