“There is already quite a lot of information on nanomaterials available. The challenge has been to navigate and find information that is easily understandable and relevant for a wider audience. Our goal is for EU-ON to become a trustworthy source of infor

mation that contributes to a well-balanced public debate on nanomaterials,” says Geert Dancet, Executive Director of ECHA.

The EU-ON will be developed in three phases. ECHA will now start to prepare the first phase, which will explain what nanomaterials are and how they are used. It will also deal with safety issues and contain links to research projects. The first phase is set to go live in summer 2017. Later phases include search functionalities and more detailed product information.

The observatory was concluded by the European Commission to be the best tool to increase transparency on nanomaterials on the EU market. The result emerged after several years of discussion and analysing different options, including a thorough impact assessment by the Commission. An alternative option was an EU-wide registry, which would have made it mandatory for industry to notify their use of nanomaterials. The Commission considered that such a registry would be too costly for both industry and authorities.


Background information

Hosting the EU nanomaterials observatory is a delegated task based on a formal delegation agreement between ECHA and the European Commission. Through the delegation agreement, the Commission assigns ECHA with a new task that is outside of ECHA’s core mandate. The Commission also allocates the necessary budgetary resources for ECHA to implement the tasks. The agreement covers the period until 2020.

European Chemicals Agency. Posted: Dec 08, 2016.