Public administration, industry associations and public affairs managers from the 28 EU member states will meet in Vienna on 14-15 November discussing the very basics of regulation: the precautionary principle. The event is a cooperation of PlasticsEurope Austria and EAA (Environment Agency Austria).
The symposium will offer first-hand information and ample opportunities for discussion and personal contacts with the main personalities from the European risk community. Industry and public administration, Brussels and member states will be there. Speakers will not so much go into scientific data or fight for specific positions. The actual goal is to identify common grounds and common values that both industry and regulators can share. Three groups of topics will be discussed.
"EU-Regulations - obstacle or asset in a global market?"
Can regulation be an incentive for innovation or will industry suffer from elevated cost leading to reduced competitiveness in a global market place? How do MEPs see the situation, what is the message from Oecd and the comments from US industry.
"Endocrine Disruption - applying new scientific concepts still under dispute?"
The topic of endocrine active substances is in the center of controversy and in the focus of media as well as politics. There are only a few fields where scientists so fundamentally disagree. Consequently ED is the show case of applying the precautionary principle as a transparent methodology to manage uncertainty.
"The SVHC Roadmap - managing risk, walking the road with confidence".
Reach will continuously develop and address new issues. Echa's SVHC Roadmap 2020 presents a guideline for regulators and industry in order to cope with the challenges to expect - such as legacy additives or other concerns that CMR.
Among others speakers will be: Bjorn Hansen (DG environment, head of chemicals, biocides and nanomaterials); Jack de Bruijn (Echa, director of risk management); Hans Bruyninckx (EEA, the new executive director of the European Environment Agency); Bob Diderich (Oecd, head of division environment, health and safety); Jim Willis (secretary general of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions); Marike Kolossa-Gehring (UBA, toxicologist, human biomonitoring); Jean Nicolas Ormsby (Anses, risk assessment department, deputy director);
Michael Taylor (SPI: the US plastics industry trade association); Jörg Leichtfried (MEP, monitoring rapporteur for the negotiations on US-EU free trade agreement in the EU parliament). Representatives of industry will equally contribute and reflect the chemicals and plastic producers' views: Cefic, PlasticsEurope, VinylPlus, Ecpi, Basf, Bayer MaterialScience etc.
Senior editors from Chemical Watch-Global Risk and Regulation News will provide expert moderation and lead through panel and public discussions.