It is established that continued emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) cause significant damage to the ozone layer. There is clear evidence of a decrease in the atmospheric burden of ODS and some early signs of stratospheric ozone recovery have been observed. However, the recovery of the ozone layer to the concentrations level existing before 1980 is not projected to take place before the middle of the 21st century. Increased UV-B radiation resulting from ozone depletion therefore persists as a significant threat to health and environment. At the same time, most of these substances have high global warming potential and are contributory factors towards increasing the temperature of the planet. Further efficient measures need therefore to be taken in order to protect human health and the environment against adverse effects resulting from such emissions and to avoid risking further delay in the recovery of the ozone layer.

Many ODS are greenhouse gases but are not controlled under the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol on the assumption that the Protocol will phase out ODS. Despite progress made by the Protocol, the task of phasing out ODS still needs to be completed in the European Union and globally, whilst bearing in mind that at present many alternatives to ODS have a high global warming potential. It is therefore necessary to minimise and eliminate the production and use of ODS wherever technically feasible alternatives with low global warming potential are available.

Additional measures for the protection of the ozone layer were adopted by the Parties to the Protocol, most recently at their meeting in Montreal in September 2007 and in Doha in November 2008. It is necessary for action to be taken at Community level to comply with the Community’s obligations under the Protocol and in particular to implement the accelerated phase out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons with due consideration to the risks of phasing in alternatives with high global warming potential.

Following the concerns stated in the 2006 Report of the Scientific Assessment Panel related to the accelerating growth of production and consumption of hydrochlorofluorocarbons in developing countries, the Parties to the Protocol in 2007 adopted Decision XIX/6 at their 19th Meeting providing for an accelerated phase-out schedule for hydrochlorofluorocarbons. Following that Decision the production phase-out date should be brought forward from 2025 to 2020.

Under Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000, as from 2010, virgin hydrochlorofluorocarbons can no longer be used for the maintenance or servicing of refrigeration and air conditioning equipment. In order to minimise the risk of illegal use of virgin hydrochlorofluorocarbons as recycled or reclaimed material, only reclaimed or recycled material should be used in maintenance or servicing operations. The re-selling of recycled hydrochlorofluorocarbons should be prohibited, and recycled hydrochlorofluorocarbons should only be used when recovered from such equipment and only by the undertaking which carried out or mandated the recovery. For consistency this exemption should also apply to heat pump equipment.

In view of the wide availability of technologies and alternative substances for replacing ODS, it is appropriate in certain cases to provide for control measures which are stricter than those provided for in Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000 and stricter than those in the Protocol.

Under Regulation (EC) No 2037/2000 the production and placing on the market of chlorofluorocarbons, other fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, hydrobromofluorocarbons, bromochloromethane and methyl bromide have been phased out and the placing on the market of those substances and of products and equipment containing those substances is thus prohibited. It is now also appropriate to progressively generalise the ban on the use of those substances for the maintenance or servicing of such equipment.

Even after the phase out of controlled substances the Commission should, under certain conditions, grant exemptions for essential laboratory and analytical uses. In particular, Decision X/14 of the Parties to the Protocol establishes criteria for granting of exemptions for those uses. The Commission should be empowered to establish conditions for essential laboratory and analytical uses. To avoid an increase in the quantities used for these purposes, producers and importers should not be allowed to significantly increase the quantities placed on the market. Specific conditions decided by the Parties for the placing on the market of substances for those uses should be integrated into this Regulation to ensure compliance with them.

The Protocol, in Article 2F(7), requires the Parties to endeavour to ensure that the use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons is limited to those applications where more environmentally suitable alternative substances or technologies are not available. In view of the availability of alternative and substitute technologies, the placing on the market and use of hydrochlorofluorocarbons as well as of products and equipment containing or relying on hydrochlorofluorocarbons can be further limited. Decision VI/13 of the Parties to the Protocol provides that the evaluation of alternatives to hydrochlorofluorocarbons should take into account such factors as ozone-depleting potential, energy efficiency, potential flammability, toxicity, global warming potential and the potential impacts on the effective use and phase out of chlorofluorocarbons and halons. The Parties concluded in that decision that hydrochlorofluorocarbon controls under the Protocol should be considerably tightened to protect the ozone layer and to reflect the availability of alternatives.

Control measures regarding products and equipment containing controlled substances should be extended to products and equipment relying on those substances in order to prevent circumventions of the restrictions under this Regulation. By covering additionally products and equipment for which the design, the use or the proper functioning requires the presence of a controlled substance, a potential opportunity to place on the market, import or export products or equipment which do not contain controlled substances at that moment, but which would have to be refilled at a later date, is eliminated. Furthermore, exemptions for products and equipment manufactured before the entry into force of the control measures should be removed as they are no longer relevant and might constitute a risk of illegal placing on the market or trade.

Controlled substances as well as products and equipment containing or relying on controlled substances from States not party to the Protocol should not be imported. Furthermore, the export of products and equipment containing or relying on hydrochlorofluorocarbons after the entry into force of a ban on use of those products and equipment or of controlled substances for their maintenance or servicing in the Community should be prohibited in order to avoid the building-up of banks of those substances in countries where sufficient destruction facilities are not available.

The licensing system for controlled substances includes the authorisation of exports of controlled substances, in order to improve the monitoring of and control of trade in ODS and to allow for exchange of information between Parties. That licensing system should be extended to products and equipment containing or relying on controlled substances.

To improve the monitoring and control of trade the licensing should cover not only the entry of goods into the customs territory for release for free circulation in the Community but also the entry under other customs procedures or for customs-approved treatments and uses. Transit through the customs territory of the Community, temporary storage, customs warehousing and the free zone procedure should still be possible without licensing in order to avoid unnecessary burdens on operators and customs authorities. Shipments to or from a territory of a Member State that is not part of the customs territory of the Community or not covered by this Regulation, but which is covered by the Member State’s ratification of the Protocol should not create unnecessary burdens to Member States in relation to licensing and reporting provided that the obligations of this Regulation and the Protocol are complied with.

Before issuing import and export licences the Commission should be enabled to verify with the competent authorities of the third country concerned whether the intended transaction would comply with the requirements applicable in that country, in order to avoid illegal and unwanted trade.

To reduce the release of controlled substances into the atmosphere, provision should be made for the recovery of used controlled substances and the prevention of leakages of controlled substances.

The Protocol requires reporting on trade in ODS. Annual reporting should therefore be required from producers, importers and exporters of controlled substances. In order to enable the Commission to streamline the reporting procedures to comply with the Protocol and avoid duplications in the process, destruction facilities should also report directly to the Commission. To ensure compliance with reporting obligations under the Protocol and to improve their practical application the Commission should be empowered to modify the reporting requirements for Member States and undertakings. In view of the envisaged development of Internet-based reporting tools the Commission should, as appropriate, draft measures to adapt the reporting requirements as soon as the relevant reporting tools are in place.

In view of the continuing innovation in the sectors covered by this Regulation, the Commission should regularly review this Regulation and, if appropriate, make proposals, in particular on the exemptions and derogations provided for when technically and economically feasible alternatives to the use of controlled substances become available, to further strengthen the protection of the ozone layer and simultaneously reduce greenhouse gases emissions. In order to ensure compliance with the Protocol, the Commission should be empowered to align Annexes to this Regulation with decisions of the Parties, in particular with those concerning approved destruction methods, conditions for the placing on the market of controlled substances for essential laboratory and analytical uses, and processes in which controlled substances may be used as process agents.

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to determine the form and content of labels for controlled substances produced, placed on the market or used as feedstock, as process agent or for laboratory and analytical uses; to amend Annex III on processes for which controlled substances may be used as process agents; to amend the maximum amount of controlled substances that may be used as process agents or emitted from process agents uses; to amend Annex V on conditions for placing on the market and further distribution of controlled substances for laboratory and analytical uses; to determine a mechanism for the allocation of quotas for controlled substances for laboratory and analytical uses; to amend Annex VI; to adopt modifications and time frames for the phasing out of the critical uses of halons; to amend the list of items required to be stated in an application for a licence; to adopt additional monitoring measures on trade in controlled substances or new substances and of products and equipment containing or relying on controlled substances; to adopt rules applicable to the release for free circulation in the Community of products and equipment imported from any State not party to the Protocol which were produced using controlled substances; to amend Annex VII on destruction technologies; to establish a list with products and equipment for which the recovery for destruction or destruction without prior recovery of controlled substances should be considered technically and economically feasible and therefore mandatory; to adopt minimum qualification requirements for personnel; to establish a list of technologies and practices to be used by undertakings to prevent and minimise any leakage and emission of controlled substances; to include new substances in Annex II and to amend reporting requirements for Member States and undertakings. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Regulation, inter alia, by supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

A flexible mechanism should be established to introduce reporting obligations for substances identified as ozone depleting, to allow for assessing the magnitude of their environmental impact and to ensure that those new substances which have been identified as having a significant ozone-depleting potential are subject to control measures. In this context, special attention should be paid to the role of very short-lived substances, having regard, in particular, to the 2006 United Nations Environment Programme/World Meteorological Organisation (UNEP/WMO) ozone assessment, which concluded that the ozone-depleting potential of those substances is greater than previously assessed.

Member States should lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of the provisions of this Regulation and ensure that they are implemented. Those penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely to ensure compliance with the Community’s obligations as party to the Protocol and to address a transboundary environmental problem with global impact whilst regulating intra-Community and external trade in ODS and products and equipment containing or relying on those substances, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States acting individually and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,