§ Bob SpinkTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many staff she estimates will be employed by the proposed European Chemicals Agency under the REACH proposals. [189033]
§ Alun MichaelThe size and composition of the proposed European Chemicals Agency (to be located in Helsinki, Finland) will depend very much on the outcome of the current EU negotiations on REACH and is, therefore, difficult to estimate. Bearing this in mind, the Finnish Government have estimated that approximately 200 people from all over the EU will be employed by the Agency.
The Government support the creation of a European Chemicals Agency. However, we do not expect the Agency to be a large organisation as we expect full use to be made of the expertise that lies with member states. The Government considers that the size of the Agency must be appropriate to secure the confidence of stakeholders and ensure that REACH is operated in a transparent, consistent and harmonised way across the EU.
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