Lobbying
Lobbying

Lobbying

The main challenge for a European industry association such as ESTAL is to be aware of upcoming legislation and to follow the development of regulatory texts that may have an impact on the aluminium surface treatment industry.

At European level, many regulations and directives have an influence on the daily work of ESTAL anodizers and coaters. For that reason, ESTAL has appointed a Technical Coordinator whose task is to monitor the legislative processes, inform ESTAL committees, interact with European Aluminium to defend the aluminium industry and its downstream users, and if necessary be proactive at European and/or political level.

As an example, following topics or regulatory texts are of concern to the aluminium surface treatment industry:

  • REACH
  • IED Directive and the revision of the BREF STM (Reference document on Best Available Techniques for surface treatments on metals and plastics)
  • Energy Performance of Buildings directive
  • Green Deal
  • Sustainability
  • Recycling and Circular Economy

The Technical Coordinator gives a report of his activities to the Joint Technical Committee, whose role is to monitor and, where possible, influence all political or technical developments linked with the quality of aluminium surface treatment. 

Permanent members of this Committee are ESTAL and the quality label organisations Qualicoat, Qualanod and GSB.  However, discussions on quality label issues are not within the scope of ESTAL and of this committee.