Legislation passed, EU Chemical Agency to come to Helsinki

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The European Parliament passed the controversial chemical law, or Reach, on Wednesday. The vote in Strasbourg was 529 - 98.
      Passage of the legislation means that the European Chemical Agency will become the first EU institution to be set up in Finland. The agency is to be launched in early June in the centre of Helsinki.
     
The purpose of the law is to set up a register for about 30,000 different chemicals used in people’s everyday lives.
      The legislation requires industry to replace the most hazardous chemicals with more benign ones, if less harmful alternatives are available. Hazardous chemicals that are used are to be tested, and permission acquired from officials.
      The move is one of the largest legislative projects in the EU, and it has sparked intense emotions both politically, and in environmental organisations and in the chemical industry.
     
The headquarters of the Chemical Agency will be in a building in the centre of Helsinki that now houses the pension insurance company Varma.
      Plans are to recruit about 150 people a year for three years. The full staff is eventually expected to reach between 400 and 500.
      Staff are to be hired from all over the EU, maintaining as equal a balance as possible.
      As is the case with other EU agencies, employees of the Chemical Agency will pay their income taxes directly to the EU, and not to Finland. The EU tax rate of 10-15 per cent of income is significantly lower than that of Finland.
      The director-general of the agency is to be chosen next year. Under EU rules, the head of the agency must not be a citizen of the country where the agency is located.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Establishment of EU Chemical Agency in Helsinki to go ahead (4.12.2006)
  EU reportedly reaches agreement on chemical legislation (1.12.2006)
  European Union Chemicals Agency to be set up in centre of Helsinki (23.3.2006)
  Helsinki tries wry humour in wooing European Chemicals Agency staff (20.12.2005)

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