Croatia will join the European Union on 1 July then the EU chemicals legislation REACH and CLP apply immediately to Croatian companies.

Croatian companies should pay particular attention to pre-registering chemical substances. Croatian companies manufacturing or importing substances in quantities of more than one tonne per year need to pre-register them with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) by 1 January 2014. Companies will then need to make full REACH registrations for substances manufactured or imported at levels over 100 tonnes together with those that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction by 1 July 2014. In addition, they need to classify and label substances on the market according to the CLP Regulation and submit the C&L notification to ECHA by 1 August 2013.

There is a Croatian national helpdesk which companies can use as their first point of contact for questions on how to comply with the REACH and CLP Regulations.

To ensure that companies are aware of their new duties under the EU chemicals legislation and that they understand their rights and responsibilities, ECHA has translated its website and support documents into Croatian. Companies can find this material easily via a Croatian accession page. It contains news and events relevant to Croatian companies, a list of important dates, guidance and tools that are critical for complying with the EU chemicals legislation. The page will be updated regularly.

Companies are also encouraged to sign up for ECHA’s news as a way of keeping up to date on developments.