This Test Guideline has been designed to obtain the information necessary to confirm or to further characterise the potential neurotoxicity of chemicals in adult animals. This Test Guideline is designed for use with the rat. It specifically addresses the daily oral administration, by gavage, (in...

This Test Guideline includes two methods: a paper contact toxicity test and an artificial soil test. The recommended specie is Eisenia foetida (Michaelsen). The initial screening test (filter paper contact test) involves exposing earthworms to test substances on moist filter paper in order to...

This Test Guideline describes a laboratory test method to assess abiotic hydrolytic transformations of chemicals in aquatic systems at pH values normally found in the environment (pH 4 – 9). This Guideline is designed as a tiered approach; each tier is triggered by the results of the previous...

This Test Guideline describes the determining of the ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) absorption spectrum of a chemical compound to have some indication of the wavelengths at which the compounds may be susceptible to photochemical degradation. Degradation will depend upon the total energy absorbed...

This study provides an analysis of the functions, structures and capacity of the central public procurement bodies of Member States. Twenty-two separate overviews of public procurement systems in the 22 participating Member States were produced on the basis of national responses to a detailed...

Central and eastern European countries have been and still are adapting their legal framework to the requirements of a Western market economy and the body of EU legislation, the acquis communautaire. As the harmonisation of the national legal framework to EU standards is one of the yardsticks...

Compliance with the European Union’s budgetary, financial control and audit requirements is one of the basic obligations of EU membership. SIGMA examines this in two publications that chronicle the experiences of seven EU Member States, including its three newest adherents, in integrating EU...

This paper attempts to identify the standards to which EU candidate countries are expected to conform in order to align their public administrations with those of EU Member States. Originating from SIGMA’s work on public administration reform in central and eastern European countries, in...

Countries that are candidates for European Union (EU) accession face the complex and urgent task of building administrative institutions so that they can fulfil the “Copenhagen criteria”. Such institutions must be able to implement the acquis communautaire within tight budget constraints and...