Geert Dancet has been selected as the candidate for the position of the Executive Director of the
European Chemicals Agency, ECHA. The formal appointment will be made in  December.

A few officials including Geert Dancet started up the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in Helsinki at the beginning of June to ensure that the ECHA will be ready to accept registrations from June 1, 2008.

At the moment there are already over 80 employees in ECHA. The agency will have about 450 employees by 2010 and will be one of the EU’s largest independent agencies.
 
 
What are the main tasks of ECHA?
The ECHA will manage and coordinate the processes prescribed by the REACH regulation – the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemical substances – with the goal of ensuring EU-wide consistency in their implementation. The agency will also provide scientific and technical support, provide information and manage databases.

The REACH regulation has been widely criticized. It has for example been called too complicated. What’s your opinion?
It’s true that REACH is extensive and its stipulations are not easy to understand. Everything has however been done to make the new regulations as easy to understand and implement as possible. For example, national helpdesks and our website provide companies easy access to information.

What expectations do you have for your task as the ECHA’s executive director?
The agency began work in June with a skeleton staff. The number of employees is however increasing rapidly. The last months of this year and early next year will be extremely busy as we try to create well-functioning practices, contacts and a good team spirit in the agency itself.  We also expect to be able to finish off many projects that are connected with the start-up.