Commission Decision of 5 August 2008 setting up an advisory structure of Scientific Committees and experts in the field of consumer safety, public health and the environment and repealing Decision 2004/210/EC (Text with EEA relevance) (2008/721/EC)

CHAPTER 5 FINAL PROVISIONS

Article 18 Secretariat of the Commission’s Scientific Committees

1. The Scientific Committees and their working groups, the ICCG as well as other meetings, workshops or events related to the application of this Decision shall be convened by the Commission.

2. The Commission shall provide the scientific and administrative secretariat for the Scientific Committees and their working groups as well as for all other activities related to the application of this Decision.

3. The secretariat shall be responsible for providing scientific and administrative support necessary to facilitate the efficient functioning of the Scientific Committees, to monitor compliance with the rules of procedure, particularly in relation to the requirements for excellence, independence and transparency, to ensure communication on the Committees’ activities and the appropriate stakeholder dialogue, including in particular organisation of hearings on the activities of the Committees, and publication of the opinions and other public documents. Moreover, the secretariat shall provide support to the Committees and organise and apply quality control of the opinions, as provided for in the rules of procedure, as far as completeness, consistency, clarity, correspondence with requests and with editorial standards are concerned.

4. The secretariat shall ensure the scientific and technical coordination of the activities of the Scientific Committees and where necessary coordination of their activities with those of other Community, national and international bodies, as well as the application of the stakeholder dialogue procedure set up in the rules of procedure and the communication on the activities of the Committees.

Article 19 Reimbursements and indemnities

Members of the Scientific Committees, scientific advisors from the Pool and external experts shall be entitled to an indemnity for their participation in the meetings of the Committees, thematic workshops, working groups and other meetings and events organised by the Commission, and for serving as Rapporteur on a specific question, as provided for in Annex III.

Reimbursement of travel and subsistence costs shall be paid by the Commission.

Article 20 Replacement of the Scientific Committees

The Scientific Committees established by Article 1(1) of this Decision shall replace the existing Scientific Committees established by Decision 2004/210/EC as follows:

(a)

the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety shall replace the Scientific Committee on Consumer Products;

(b)

the Scientific Committee on the Health and Environmental Risks shall replace the Committee of the same name;

(c)

the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks shall replace the Scientific Committee of the same name.

Article 21 Repeals

1. Decision 2004/210/EC is repealed.

However, the three Committees established by that decision shall remain in office until the Scientific Committees established by this Decision take office.

2. References to the repealed decision shall be understood as applicable to this Decision; references to the Committees established by the repealed decision shall be understood as applicable to the Committees established by this Decision.