Decision and Policy Making in the European Union : Role of EU Agencies in the decision and policy making in the area of chemicals and food safety

Sammanfattning: EU regulations, decisions and policy making are matters that concern every resident in the EU and risk and benefit assessment and analysis form part of the EU decision and policy making. This thesis discusses the decision/policy making in the EU and the risk assessment activities of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), as well as ECHA’s socio-economic analysis activities. It also studies the role of the European Commission and the Comitology process. The EU regulates what chemicals or food stuffs/ingredients, for instance additives, may be made available in the European market. How the decisions are made about what is allowed and what not, and who makes those decisions, is not necessarily evident due to the complexity of the processes. In this thesis the decision making at different stages of the EU regulatory processes has been identified and analysed in order to find out by whom and how the decisions are made. The method used was a literature search with an overview of the existing theories and research from the areas of EU decision making, risk assessment and risk management. The regulatory processes were studied from a decision making perspective with the aim to identify and record possible decision making opportunities of different actors beyond the European Commission. The decision making opportunities were classified and organised based on their level of impact to the processes. Two real cases were studied: the restriction of lead in jewellery under REACH Annex XV restrictions and the authorisation of ammonium chloride in food under Flavourings regulation. Decision making opportunities and methods were looked for in those processes. It was found that while, in the studied cases, there appeared possibilities to ensure science based good regulatory decision/policy making, it remained uncertain and possibly politicised. It was also revealed that in certain steps the processes lacked transparency.