Forum elects new chairs and starts to work with BPR subgroup

ECHA/NI/17/08

The Forum has elected its new chairs and the Forum’s BPR subgroup met for the first time to decide on a project on the control of classification and labelling of biocidal products.

Helsinki, 3 April 2017 - At its 26^th plenary meeting on 28-30 March, the Forum for Exchange of Information on Enforcement elected a new Chair, Ms Katja vom Hofe (Germany) and Vice Chairs Ms Szilvia Deim (Hungary) and Ms Sinead McMickan (Ireland).

The Forum discussed a potential joint initiative involving accredited stakeholder organisations aimed at improving the quality of safety data sheets (SDSs). The Forum will liaise with the ASOs to see if they are interested in undertaking such a joint action.

The BPR subgroup in the Forum met for the first time on 31 March. The subgroup is a body under the umbrella of the ECHA Enforcement Forum that will deal with coordinating the exchange on enforcement of the Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR), which is now under the remit of the Forum.

The BPR subgroup elected Mr Eugen Anwander (Austria) as its Chair and Mr Dominik Pisarek (Poland) as its Vice Chair.

The subgroup discussed its priorities and decided that one of its first activities will be an enforcement project on the hazard classification and labelling of biocidal products. The project will be conducted in 2018 in the scope of the Forum REACH-EN-FORCE-6 (REF-6) project on hazard classification and labelling of mixtures. Publication of the report is expected near the end of 2019.

The BPR subgroup also established a working group to prioritise and select the subjects for a further upcoming BPR enforcement project.

It will also elaborate its BPR-related activities for 2017-2018 in the Forum’s Multiannual Work Programme 2014-2018. The revised version of this Work Programme will be published later in 2017.