EU RISK MANAGEMENT

Judging from previous EU risk management decision-making, the scope and detail of a regulatory action proposed by a Member State depends on its national regulatory approach and administrative structure [31, 32], Previous research has identified that France, Germany, Sweden and the UK display contrasting styles of... 

A four-step methodology was devised to develop a framework for EU risk management decision-making under REACH (Figure 3.4). 

Actor roles and responsibilities for national and EU risk management Relevance and implications of actors for EU decision-making Identification of methods for supporting actor responsibilities Necessity for national versus EU action... 

Improvements to national c EU risk management Identification of structural changes to the TGD Identification of decision-making structures Opportunities for streamlined decisionmaking... 

Box 5.1 Three EU risk management anecdotes based on interviews... 

Compared with analysing the socio-economic consequences of chemical production and use in terms of the impact on variables such as employment and industrial competitiveness, EU risk management decision-making clearly lacks a method to evaluate the consequence that perceived chemical risks have on perceptions of equity. Moreover, there appears to be little consideration of how decisions can affect trust in regulatory institutions. Yet, as described in Chapter 2 and explored in Chapter 4, these social dimensions of risk prove fundamental to regulation. 

A major obstacle in reaching consensus during EU risk management decision-making arises when a large variation in the economic impact... 

EFSA collects and evaluates occurrence data on mycotoxins in food and feed. It provides scientific advice and risk assessments on mycotoxins for EU risk managers to help them assess the need for regulatory measures as regards to the safety of myco-toxin-contaminated food and feed. Further information can be found on the EFSA homepages http //www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/mycotoxins.htm. 

WISE (2008b) Water notes on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Water Note 3 - Groundwater at risk managing the water under us. http //ec.europa.eu/environment/ water/water-framework/pdf/water note3 groundwateratrisk.pdf... 

Risk management Safety Data Sheets (Directive 91/155/EEC) EU... 

The harmonised EU safety data sheet is designed to describe systematically the hazardous properties of chemicals and to inform users about suitable and effective risk management measures. For some years this safety data sheet also has to state what (eco)toxicological standard effects have not been verified for a specific substance. The EU instrument has now been in existence for thirteen years, while the corresponding DIN predecessor had already been introduced in the 1980s. Nevertheless, many safety data sheets still indicate extensive quality shortcomings. 

Within the EU the chemical control directives are based on three steps (1) Hazard assessment, (2) Risk assessment, and (3) Risk management. 

The EU Risk Assessment ( Council Regulation [EEC] 793/93 of 23 March 1993 )39 is well recognized as being the leading independent, transparent, and science-based system for assessing chemicals and substances in everyday use.40 The Consumer Products Safety Quality (CPS Q) Unit, formerly known as European Chemicals Bureau (ECB), is part of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP), which is one of the seven scientific institutes in the European Commission s Joint Research Center (JRC).41 The CPS Q is responsible for managing the risk assessment process. As will be discussed in further detail in Section 22.2.2.4.4, the EU Risk Assessment process was revoked on June 1, 2008 and replaced by the REACH Directive. 

The relevance of REACH goes beyond the transformation of EU chemicals safety management. Internally, REACH S institutional design and procedural sequences may well become a model for EU risk regulation generally (Pesendorfer 2006). 

---