EU biocide Committee ready for business

The EU Biocidal Products Committee (BPC)has agreed on the working procedures and a provisional work programme for 2014-16 at its third meeting. The BPC is now ready to handle its first cases.

Following agreement of the rules of procedure during the second BPC meeting and their subsequent approval by the Management Board, the Committee has agreed working procedures for active substance approval, for Union authorisation and for giving opinions on scientific and technical matters in relation to mutual recognition at its third meeting. The procedures define the way the Committee is run and how opinions are taken.

The BPC also agreed on the approach for the participation of the accredited stakeholder organisations and applicants during the Committee meetings. It was agreed that both applicants and accredited stakeholder organisations can participate in the Committee's plenary and working group meetings. Five new accredited stakeholder organisations have been agreed to be invited to future meetings. The list of agreed BPC accredited stakeholder organisation observers will be published shortly on the ECHA website.The Committee will discuss the first dossiers in its next meeting scheduled for 11 to 13 February 2014.