EU-agentschap voor chemie in Helsinki wordt groter dan verwacht (en)

A new European Chemicals Authority - awarded to Finland as a consolation prize for not getting the European Food Authority - could become significantly larger than first expected.

According to a European Commission proposal, this authority could eventually have a staff of between 200 and 400 people. However, France has proposed that the number of staff should "at least be doubled", reports Helsingin Sanomat.

Tasks undertaken by the Chemicals Authority will include registering chemicals used in the EU member states and also granting the necessary licences for chemicals. Under the French proposal, the authority could for example also evaluate testing standards.

"This is an interesting proposal, which Finland supports on the civil servant level. However, we still have some reservations about the task of evaluating chemicals", said Juha Pyötsiä of the Ministry for Social Affairs and Health, to the newspaper.

The French suggestion will be discussed next week in Brussels at ministerial level. A number of countries are expected to be against giving the authority the task of testing chemicals, since they already have their own well-established systems.

The authority is expected to start operating in 2006.