Inventory of Practices

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European Commission and Agencies Sientific Committees/Panels involved in Risk Assessment

The European Union is committed to ensuring the health and safety of all citizens residing in its territory. This means not only making sure that the products circulating in the EU market are safe, but also being able to take action against possible threats to health, such as for example infectious diseases.

This is ensured by carrying out thorough risk assessments before any important decision is taken. For this purpose, the EU has established specialised agencies to carry out risk assessments in a number of areas, ranging from food to pharmaceuticals and communicable diseases. In addition, in areas concerning consumer safety, environment and health or emerging risks, the European Commission has created specialised committees of independent scientific experts.

The Chairpersons of these scientific committees and agencies meet on an annual basis, in order to discuss and coordinate issues of common interest related to risk assessment. At the 2008 annual meeting it was proposed to collaborate for the establishment of a compilation of practices, related to the functioning of the Commission and Agency Scientific Committees and Panels. This compilation would include only aspects related to the organisation of the Committees/Panels and their work and not address any risk assessment methodological issues.

As a first phase, the focus for sharing information is on the following three aspects:

At this first phase of the project information has been included for ECDC, ECHA, EMA and the European Commission's independent scientific committees (SCCS, SCHER, SCENIHR).

As a second phase, depending on the feedback on this initiative, more aspects will be covered, such as for example the use of confidential data, how are experts reimbursed etc.