ECOS strengthens its work on the governance of nanomaterials

Our work on nanomaterials has been boosted by the 1 January launch of two H2020 projects on the governance of nanomaterials that we are partners in.

They are part of a cluster of three projects asked by the European Commission to work together to create an independent, self-sustaining risk governance council that will seek to develop or improve decision-making tools to help EU governance decisions.

Within the RiskGONE project ECOS is the only civil society representative and leads on communication and outreach activities. We will also significantly contribute to the development of the risk governance council, its deliberation and working practices.

In the framework of the second project, NanoRIGO, we will be working alongside our members Quercus (PT) and WECF International (FR) on civil society engagement and contribution.

These projects were launched at the same time as ongoing efforts at EU level to establish how to classify hazards linked to titanium dioxide (TiO2) through the CLP Regulation on the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures.

Along with a wide group of civil society organisations, ECOS has been communicating loudly and regularly to ensure that decisions on how to regulate TiO2 follow legislative requirements and are based on sound science. The already opaque process has been made even more dubious by the European Commission’s proposal that goes against agreed science, and its decisions to repeatedly postpone Member States voting on the issue.