The Greek refrigeration industry warns its government about the illegal import of refrigerants into the country

On June 21, 2018, fourteen Greek companies and organisations representing air conditioning and refrigeration equipment manufacturers, distributors, contractors and engineers wrote a letter to their government to express their concerns about the illegal import of refrigerants from several countries.

Greece is subjected to European Regulations EU 517/2014 and 2067/2015 which classify fluorinated refrigerants as controlled substances, and which stipulates that only companies who have been granted a quota by the European Union have the right to produce and/or import quantities of fluorinated refrigerants, or appliances containing fluorinated refrigerants, from EU Member States. Those regulations also involve a gradual ban of high-GWP refrigerants.

According to the letter, current stocks of refrigerants that will have to be replaced with lower GWP refrigerants exceed 100 million kilos in Greece. Nevertheless, since the price of high GWP has risen all over the European Union these last few months, the Greek refrigeration industry points out the fact that large amounts of high GWP refrigerants are still being imported from countries that do not belong to the European Union such as Macedonia, Albania or Turkey, but also from Bulgaria, an EU member state.

The letter is available following this link.