Regulation on European Chemicals Agency

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the proposed European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) regulation which will create an independent legal framework to help ECHA manage its growing duties efficiently with a view to protecting human health and the environment.
• believes that scientific assessments of chemicals should consider the needs of vulnerable groups in the decision-making process as some substances may pose particular risk for them. The EESC urges to integrate the One Health perspective into its chemical assessments to both address risks that disproportionately affect vulnerable groups and strengthen inclusive, transparent and coordinated governance;
• notes that the key to the future success of the Agency lies in ensuring that it is independent and seen to be so in the exercise of its duties and responsibilities.  The issue of conflicts of interest must also be a central consideration to ensure widespread acceptance of scientific opinions;
• recommends that the new proposals ensure the widest possible access to all documents containing chemical data and all other sources of information on chemical data;
• considers that the Board of Appeal, consisting of a chairperson and two members, is far too narrow and restricted to deal adequately with the appeals. The EESC considers that the Board of Appeal must have a broader membership to ensure fairness and transparency;
• underlines that the precautionary principle must apply to protect public health and the environment in the event of failure to remedy diverging scientific opinions;
• calls for adequate resources to be provided for the ECHA committees and for timeliness indicators and service standards to be introduced;
• recommends establishing a permanent Civil Society Advisory Panel (CSAP) to the ECHA Management Board, with its opinions and minutes published;
• calls for the proactive publication of non-confidential inputs and plain-language summaries of opinions, decisions and reports, along with FAIR metadata and an API for data re-use. The EESC is also in favour of giving eligible non-profit organisations the right to address the Board of Appeal, and of granting fee waivers or reductions for such organisations.