Directorates and units

 

 

Unit B1: Committees Secretariat
Role

The Committees Secretariat Unit ensures that the Agency's three technical and scientific Committees operate in an independent, efficient, transparent, and consistent manner and can deliver high-quality scientific opinions or agreements.

Tasks

The Committees Secretariat:

  • Provides the Secretariat for the three ECHA Committees (Member State Committee - MSC, Committee for Risk Assessment - RAC, and Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis - SEAC) and plans, prepares, organises and follows up their work
  • Chairs the three Committees
  • Supports Committee members, in particular rapporteurs, and external experts in relation to their Committee tasks
  • Maintains the Manual of Decisions (MSC) and Manual of Conclusions and Recommendations (RAC, SEAC)
  • Administers the contracts with the rapporteurs and/or experts providing a service for the Committees
  • Informs stakeholders and the public about the work and outputs of the Committees
  • Establishes and maintains appropriate procedures and working relations with other relevant Community committees and scientific advisory bodies, in order to ensure consistency between the opinions of ECHA Committees and of other relevant Committees, including those run by other EU bodies
  • Organises and coordinates the preparatory activities for new biocide tasks for ECHA.

 

Unit B2: Legal Affairs
Role

The Unit for Legal Affairs provides legal advice and support for the Executive Director and the operational Directorates in order to ensure that the assistance to companies, decisions, positions and opinions are in conformity with the regulations that govern the Agency.

Tasks

The Legal Affairs Unit:

Litigation and complaints

  • Defends ECHA in any appeal or court proceedings or in front of the European Ombudsman
  • Provides legal analysis concerning rectification of decisions
  • Protects ECHA's intellectual property
  • Drafts Executive Director decisions for review of decisions on confidentiality claims and on alternative names
  • Drafts Appointing Authority decisions on staff complaints
  • Provides support in answering complaints
  • Assists in pre-litigation situations

Legal verification

  • Provides ex ante legal verification of ECHA decisions, opinions and positions
  • Reviews procedures and templates relating to decision and opinion making
  • At the request of the Executive Director or horizontal Directorates, verifies internal policies and practices from a legal point of view

Legal advice

  • Plans, prepares and provides legal advice to the Director of Regulatory affairs and to the relevant Directorates and units in charge of REACH and CLP activities
  • Coordinates the requests for access to documents or to environmental information and provides support to the Directorates in charge of responding to the requests
  • Provides legal advice to the Executive Director and horizontal Directorates supporting the administrative and corporate functions of the Agency
  • Coordinates consultations with the Commission on legal interpretations
  • Acts as ECHA's contact point for the Inter-Agency Legal Network
  • Keeps an inventory of legal texts applicable to the Agency.