01 October 2025 - News item ECHA’s management of conflicts of interest in consultancy services

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is publishing this statement to clarify issues raised in recent media coverage about its use of consultants and its management of potential conflicts of interest in the contract award process.

ECHA used the services of Ramboll Deutschland GmbH to contribute with technical studies, as one element in a broad range of scientific material, data and evidence in the context of the opinion-making on PFAS in firefighting foams. Ramboll was one of several contractors involved in supplying technical input to ECHA in this case.

ECHA has recently examined this specific instance in response to an Access to Documents request from a non-governmental organisation (NGO), including providing all relevant documents in its response, and found that any potential conflicts had been assessed during the contract award process and managed in the subsequent work by the contractor and ECHA. The agency also responded to a recent complaint on the same topic from a group of NGOs.

ECHA safeguards scientific independence and public trust in its work and supports informed and evidence-based opinions on chemical safety. ECHA's opinions are transparent, independent and of high quality. In ECHA's committees, independent members conduct a thorough evaluation of a broad range of available scientific data and studies as well as evidence collected from third party consultations.

Contracts for consultancy services

Like other scientific/knowledge-based agencies, ECHA uses external expert services to meet its needs where the agency itself lacks the specific expertise. This is done through the award of multi-annual contracts for service provision to carefully selected providers.

The process is governed by the EU's procurement guidelines and incorporates ECHA's own conflicts of interest policy to ensure the best use of public funds. All consultants must declare any potential conflicts of interest and work independently of industry or other interests to ensure the integrity in their work.

They cannot work for private sector clients on the same subject at the same time as they work for ECHA. In order to continue maintaining our high standards on conflict of interest prevention, we are at present reviewing our rules.

Following the award of consultancy contracts, ECHA's use of consultants is subject to strict guidelines and transparency rules, with details of all contract awards, the consultants used, the amounts spent on their contracts and the overall scope of their work being published on its website.

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