Europe's Reach agency ready for one-man show

31 May 2007 12:07  [Source: ICIS news]

By Philippa Jones

 

PARIS (ICIS news)--The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will open its doors as planned with an interim director and no staff, a European Commission official said.

 

Interim executive director Geert Dancet will take over the reins of the ECHA in Helsinki when the registration, evaluation, and authorisation of chemicals (Reach) comes into force on Friday 1 June.

 

Dancet will leave his post as head of the Reach unit in the commission's enterprise department (DG Enterprise) to manage the organisation which will be responsible for registering a total of about 30,000 chemicals.

 

However, life may be a little lonely for a while since Dancet will be the only official member of staff until July/August when 39 seconded commission officials will arrive to keep him company.

 

“During the summer a varying number of people from the commission will also be in the agency on missions,” said Petteri Makela, from the Reach unit in DGEnterprise.

 

He agreed that “the situation may look a bit confusing”, but said the role of the agency during its first year of existence was simply to build operational structures and recruit personnel so that it would be fully operational by June 1, 2008.

 

During an 18-month transitional period, the EC officials will gradually hand over responsibility to a permanent team of staff – 60 of whom are expected to start work in early autumn 2007.

 

Dancet has signed up for a two-year tenure, after which he will cede the post to a permanent executive director chosen by the commission, the ECHA management board and vetted by the European Parliament.

 

The recruitment process for technical staff is ongoing and will be completed this summer, said Makela.

 

Further recruitment is foreseen later this year and early in 2008, and the commission expects the the agency to have over 400 employees by 2010.

 

By: Philippa Jones
+44 20 8652 3214

< previous article(VIDEO - ICIS news Europe Lunchtime Bulletin 27 October 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly