Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

The Rapporteur considers that strengthening the knowledge base on chemicals, facilitates the exchange of data between regulatory bodies as well as their communication and coordination on regulatory action, while streamlining the assessment of chemicals, and ensuring early detection and action on emerging chemical risks.

The Rapporteur welcomes the Commission’s proposal and the proposed harmonisation of assessments, with the caveat that each of the agencies work under their individual mandates, and full harmonisation is not possible without alignment of the regulations. He considers that streamlining is needed, and data harmonisation could work for the benefit of EU citizens and industry.

The reassignment of scientific and technical tasks should not lead to all tasks being centralised primarily in one agency (e.g. ECHA). When it comes to the hazard assessment of substances, it would be understandable that ECHA would be more involved. However, the risk assessment of chemicals – especially in the context of specific applications or product groups – should still be carried out by the agencies that have already gained extensive experience in this field.

In the case of substantive divergence over scientific issues, the Rapporteur considers that all the bodies involved in the process should work either resolving the divergence or preparing a joint document clarifying the contentious scientific issues.