Four officials of Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey attended the On the Way to Harmonised Classification and Labelling (CLH) workshop. It focused on Member States’ experiences and best practice in preparing and processing of CLH dossiers. In addition, the workshop discussed the role of Member State experts in the CLH process as members of the Risk Assessment Committee. The event was a good opportunity for the beneficiaries to get a first insight in the work that closely involves Member States’ experts in the preparation of ECHA opinions.

Four Croatian helpdesk officers attended the HelpNet Steering Group meeting and a training session on Member States’ dossier submissions to ECHA. Member States have the obligation to set up a Helpdesk to provide advice to industry on companies’ duties under REACH and CLP regulations. To achieve high quality, consistent and harmonised advice a HelpNet network has been set up. Its members meet regularly at ECHA to streamline the enquiry process and provided advice. In addition to Member State representatives, observers from Croatia and Turkey as Candidate Countries that have established national helpdesks can attend the meeting.

ECHA contributed to the REACH part to the Train the Trainers workshop in Zagreb. This activity was carried out in close cooperation with the Croatian Chamber of Economy, which was the co-organiser of the workshop. The workshop discussed the basics of REACH from substance identification to data sharing and all the way to companies’ duties to register. In addition, the functioning of IUCLID 5 and REACH IT were demonstrated by explaining how a substance dataset and a dossier are created. The training covered the steps of a successful submission of a dossier to ECHA via REACH-IT. It also indicated the benefits of the Technical Completeness Check tool as well as the need to have the legal entity information synchronised in both IT systems.

A meeting was held at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Sanitary Inspectorate, which is the competent authority for chemicals in Croatian. Representatives from the Sanitary Inspectorate, Croatian Institute of Toxicology and Institute for Medicinal Researches and Occupational Health attended the meeting. Each institution presented their involvement in the chemicals management and discussed their needs for support in starting to work with ECHA.

A meeting was held at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which is the competent authority for chemicals in Turkey. Representatives from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Under-Secretariat for Foreign Trade (UFT) and Turkish Helpdesk which is an industry organisation affiliated to the UFT attended the meeting. The participants discussed Turkish needs for training and identified officials who would benefit from ECHA’s capacity building activities.

A meeting was held at the Ministry of Health, which is the competent authority for chemicals in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYROM). Representatives from the Ministry of Economy, Clinic of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Centre for the Control of Medicals and Ministry for Environment attended the meeting. The participants discussed the local needs for training and identified officials who would benefit from ECHA’s capacity building activities.

A meeting was held at the Serbian Chemicals Agency, which is the competent authority in charge of managing the efficient use of chemicals and biocide products. The Agency is administratively under the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning. Officials responsible for different aspects of the chemicals legislation attended the meeting and discussed their training needs on the EU chemical legislation. They also identified who would benefit from IPA support in starting to work with ECHA. In addition, the visit included a brief meeting with the Minister for the Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning.

The workshop on the cooperation of ECHA with the Member States I was attended by 22 officials representing Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. It provided introductory training on the REACH and CLP implementation that focused on Member States’ tasks under these two pieces of regulation. The workshop outlined the work, procedures and activities of ECHA that include Member State involvement. It focused on the objectives of the members in the ECHA committees and their advisers with the Member State committee involvement.

Fourteen officials representing the Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Institute for Toxicology, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health and Institute for Plant Protection Products attended the workshop on Risk Assessment Committee I. It provided introductory training on the role and main tasks of Member States working with the European Chemicals Agency in its Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC). The training focused on the objectives and expectations for the work of the Committee’s rapporteurs, members, their advisers and dossier submitters under the main REACH and CLP processes with RAC involvement.

Twelve officials representing the fYROM Ministry of Health (Sector for Chemicals), Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning (Industrial pollution and risk management), Pharmaceutical Faculty, Authorised Laboratory and Alkaloid (industry) attended the Risk Assessment Committee workshop II. It provided introductory training on the REACH and CLP implementation that focused on Member States’ tasks under these two pieces of regulation. The workshop outlined the work, procedures and activities of ECHA that include Member State involvement. It focused on the objectives of the members in the ECHA committees and their advisers with the Member State committee involvement.

Fifteen officials representing the Serbian Ministry of Environment, Mining and Spatial Planning and the Serbian Chemicals Agency attended the workshop on the cooperation of ECHA with Member States II. It provided introductory training on the role and main tasks of Member States working with the European Chemicals Agency in its Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC). The training focused on the objectives and expectations for the work of the Committee’s rapporteurs, members, their advisers and dossier submitters under the main REACH and CLP processes with RAC involvement.

Seventeen officials representing the Ministry of Environment and Forestry renamed Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation) which is the Turkish Competent Authority for chemicals, Under-Secretariat for Foreign Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affaires and Ministry of Health attended the workshop on the tasks of the Risk Assessment Committee III. It provided introductory training on the REACH and CLP implementation that focused on Member States’ tasks under these two pieces of regulation. The workshop outlined the work, procedures and activities of ECHA that include Member State involvement. It focused on the objectives of the members in the ECHA committees and their advisers with the Member State committee involvement.

Sixteen officials representing Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey attended the workshop on the Member State Committee tasks on authorisation and evaluation. It provided introductory training on the role and main tasks of ECHA’s Member State Committee (MSC). The training focused on the objectives and expectations for the members of Committee, their advisers and dossier submitters under the main REACH and CLP processes with MSC involvement.

Ten officials representing Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro attended the workshop on cooperation of ECHA with Member States III. It provided introductory training on the role and main tasks of Member States working with the European Chemicals Agency in its Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC). The training focused on the objectives and expectations for the work of the Committee’s rapporteurs, members, their advisers and dossier submitters under the main REACH and CLP processes with RAC involvement.