Council Of The EU And EP Reach Provisional Agreement For Stronger ECHA

The Council of the European Union (EU) announced on June 30, 2026, that it reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament (EP) on the management and funding of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The Council of the EU states that the new rules “will create a standalone legal framework to help ECHA manage its growing number of duties efficiently.” ECHA was established in 2007 under the EU’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation. Since then, its responsibilities have expanded. The provisional agreement would:

• Unify ECHA’s expanded mandate: The co-legislators agreed to consolidate ECHA’s extended tasks and responsibilities under a single regulation, decoupling ECHA from REACH. The Council of the EU states that this “unified and autonomous framework will provide a clear legal basis for ECHA’s operations and facilitate its efficient governance.” The new rules outline the specific tasks assigned to ECHA under different EU laws. Under the agreement, the EP or EU member states can request scientific opinions from ECHA, after consulting with the European Commission (EC).

• Strengthen ECHA’s structure: ECHA’s structure will be adapted to manage its current and future workload effectively, ensuring it has the necessary resources. To maintain the highest standards of scientific and technical expertise within the EU, the agreement provides for the necessary pool of experts to be nominated by EU member states and appointed to ECHA’s Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) and Socio-Economic Analysis Committee (SEAC).

• Simplify budget and reserve fund: According to the Council of the EU, by unifying budgets (from three to a single and autonomous one), ECHA will have greater flexibility to allocate resources independently to adapt efficiently to changing workloads. The Council of the EU states that recognizing the challenges in accurately predicting income from fees and charges, the agreement establishes a reserve fund capped at ten percent of ECHA’s fees and charges to address fluctuations in fee revenues and its impact on ECHA’s operations. The Council of the EU notes that the EC may increase or decrease this percentage from one to 20 percent to reflect better ECHA’s actual financial needs.

• Safeguard credibility: The co-legislators acknowledged that trust and confidence in ECHA and its opinions and advice are vital. Therefore, they have established clear rules on preventing and managing conflicts of interest for ECHA’s staff and experts, including members of its internal bodies, to ensure its independence and credibility.

The provisional agreement will now be submitted to the EP and the Council of the EU for formal adoption. Following adoption, the new regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force 20 days after its publication.