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Re-attribution of scientific and technical tasks and improving cooperation among Union agencies in the area of chemicals

2023/0455(COD)

The Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety adopted the report by Dimitris TSIODRAS (EPP, EL) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EC) No 178/2002, (EC) No 401/2009, (EU) 2017/745 and (EU) No 2019/1021 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the re-attribution of scientific and technical tasks and improving cooperation among Union agencies in the area of chemicals.

The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament's position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should amend the proposal as follows:

Divergent scientific opinions

Members specify that the Authority and the body concerned must cooperate to resolve the divergence, with the aim of ensuring the highest level of health and environmental protection. Priority should be given to the most protective opinion to safeguard vulnerable groups.

When a substantive divergence on scientific issues has been identified and the body concerned is a Member State body, the Authority and the national body must be required to cooperate either to resolve the divergence or to prepare a joint report clarifying the contentious scientific issues, identify the relevant uncertainties in the data and the possible causes for the diverging opinions, including on methodological differences. This document must be made publicly available.

Agency’s resources

The Commission will monitor the situation regarding the resources of the European Chemicals Agency and tasks, workload and remit of the scientific committees of the European Chemicals Agency and present, where necessary, a legislative proposal to reflect any needs of the European Chemicals Agency stemming from tasks introduced by this Regulation and to improve the governance of its scientific committees.

Lastly, the report introduces amendments to Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 on persistent organic pollutants (list of substances subject to waste management provisions). These amendments stipulate that the Commission will review the concentration limits for certain substances and, if necessary, adopt a legislative proposal to lower certain values ​​by 30 December 2027.