Prize for International Chemicals Policy goes to Specialists in the Federal Office for the Environment
Bern, 09.07.2008 - The Intergovernmental Forum on Chemicals Safety (Intergovernmental Forum on Chemicals Safety, IFCS) is to confer the "IFCS 2008 Award of Merit" on Georg Karlaganis and Franz Xaver Perrez from the Federal Office for the Environment, FOEN. With this, the IFCS is honouring the successful Swiss commitment to international chemicals policy. Member of the Federal Council of Switzerland, Moritz Leuenberger, extends his congratulations to the prize-winners for this award.
In recent years Switzerland has played a prominent role in global chemicals policy, under the leadership of FOEN employees Georg Karlaganis (Head of the Department for Soil, Materials and Biotechnology) and Franz Perrez (Head of the Global Section), and has particularly supported the use of synergies and the strengthening of coherence and cooperation in the international chemicals and waste sector. They have thus succeeded, among other things, in bringing the secretariats of various important international bodies within the chemicals sector to Geneva, thereby laying the foundation for a global chemicals and waste centre of competence. At the present time the chemicals and waste sector is considered to be the model of an effective, efficient and coherent international environmental policy.
Georg Karlaganis and Franz Perrez have been both initiators and driving forces in the implementation of Swiss commitment in this area. In September 2008 on the occasion of the sixth Forum of the IFCS in Dakar, Senegal, Georg Karlaganis and Franz Perrez will be presented with the IFCS Award of Merit for their productive cooperation and their expert knowledge, which has shaped the strategy and content of international chemicals policy. Member of the Federal Council of Switzerland, Moritz Leuenberger, extends his congratulations to the prize-winners for this award and is delighted at the success of Swiss policy in this sector.
Georg Karlaganis and Franz Perrez have also had a major influence on the structural development and content of the Global Chemicals Strategy (Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, SAICM) and on the IFCS. For instance, proposals for an approach to a global policy on nanotechnology, which will be discussed between 15-19 September 2008 in Dakar, are based on suggestions from the Swiss delegation that Karlaganis and Perrez head.
BOX 1
The ICFS Award of Merit has been presented by the ICFS since 1997 for outstanding achievements in the sector of international chemicals safety. It has a high symbolic value, but prize money is not awarded. The former ICFS President, Roy Hickman, describes the ICFS Award of Merit as the „Nobel prize for chemicals safety". For the first time two Swiss people, Georg Karlaganis and Franz Perrez, will be awarded this prize.
BOX 2
Switzerland is one of the most important protagonists in international chemicals and waste policy. Thus it has been possible in recent years to attract the secretariats of important international bodies within the chemicals sector to Geneva (the Rotterdam-PIC-Convention on the procedure of agreement in advance after notification for certain dangerous chemicals and pesticides in international trade and the Stockholm Agreement on Persistent Organic Pollutants, POP), where other important institutions in the chemicals and waste sector are already established, such as the Basel Convention on the trade with hazardous waste, the chemicals programme of the UNO Environmental Programme, UNEP, the UNO Training and Research Institute (UNITAR), the World Health Organisation, WHO, the IFCS and the World Trade Organisation, WTO.
The foundation has therefore been laid in Geneva for a global centre of competence in chemicals and waste. Subsequently the Secretariat of the Global Chemicals Strategy (Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, SAICM) was established in Geneva. In response to Switzerland's initiative and pressure, the international community has begun to further extend synergies in the international chemicals and waste sector since this consolidation of the most important chemicals and waste processes in Geneva.
As an important production and research location for the chemical industry, Switzerland has a special responsibility for, and great interest in, an effective international chemicals policy, which affords protection for the environment and creates fair conditions for a sustainable economic development of the chemicals industry.
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