Day one
8. october
Bert Leemans is a policy officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV), where he serves within the ‘Marine Environment and Clean Water Services’ unit. In this capacity, he plays a coordinating role in the implementation of the recast Drinking Water Directive and provides technical and policy expertise to ensure safe and sustainable water management across the EU.
Supported by ECHA, JRC and Member States’ experts, and in consultation with all stakeholders, he coordinates the development and implementation of EU policy on materials and products in contact with drinking water, harmonising standards to achieve a “one standard – one test – one market” system.
Head of section ‘distribution of drinking water’ at the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt – UBA)
Responsible for the assessment of starting substances, compositions and constituents of materials in contact with drinking water in Germany.
Responsible for setting the testing and acceptance criteria for materials in contact with drinking water in Germany.
Member of several European working groups for the development of a common European system for materials in contact with drinking water
Panos Zarogiannis leads ECHA’s work on the Drinking Water Directive (DWD) as Team Leader.
He is coordinating ECHA’s implementation of the new DWD application and approval system for substances and compositions used in drinking water contact materials and he also serves as Chair of RAC’s DWD Working Group.
Bianca van de Ven (PhD) has been working at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) as a chemical risk assessor since 1999. Her areas of expertise include materials in contact with food and/or drinking water.
She is a member of the Dutch committees for the evaluation of (substances in) these materials, has been involved in the work of 4MSi, and is a member of the Drinking Water Working Group of the Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) at ECHA.
Day two
9. october
Marco van Brink is the chairman Group of (future) Notified Bodies Drinking Water (NB-DW) and represents 30 organizations from 16 member states active in the assessment of materials and products in contact with drinking water, planning to become a notified body as mend in the Drinking Water Directive article 11 Minimum Hygienic Requirements. Marco has 25 years of experience in the testing, inspection and certification business of among others products/materials in contact with drinking water.
Lars Neveling is a Senior Technical Advisor at figawa, representing the German drinking water industry in national and European regulatory and standardization activities. His work focuses on the implementation of the European Drinking Water Directive, particularly the harmonisation of hygiene requirements for materials and products in contact with drinking water.
He is actively involved in bringing together industry, authorities and conformity assessment
Lara Van de Merckt (European Metals)
Lara Van de Merckt works as a Senior Policy Advisor for European Metals, the non-ferrous metals association. Having trained as an environmental biologist, she now oversees the association’s work on the Water Framework Directive, the Soil Monitoring Law and the Drinking Water Directive, including the latter’s implementation of Article 11.
She supports the sector in the new process of additions and renewals to the EU positive lists. As a regular stakeholder, she also follows the work of the ECHA Risk Assessment Committee Drinking Water Working Group on the EUPLs
Dr.-Ing. Johannes Ruppert is chair of the expert group test laboratories. He specializes in the testing and evaluation of materials and products in contact with drinking water, with focus on material testing and regulatory requirements.
Through his work in testing, certification support, and expert committees, he contributes to ensuring the safety and suitability of materials used in drinking water.
Prof. Claus Wrana (Compounds AG)
Claus Wrana is Chief Technology Officer at Compounds AG, where he is responsible for R&D and regulatory strategy for elastomer materials in drinking water applications. His work focuses on the transition to the European Drinking Water Directive (DWD), combining deep expertise in polymer science, compounding and curing with practical implementation in industrial products.
He supports manufacturers in developing compliant, robust and economically viable solutions for the evolving European regulatory framework.
Day one
- Bert Leemans (EU Commission)
- Dr. Thomas Rapp (UBA)
- Panagiotis Zarogiannis (ECHA)
- Bianca van de Ven (RIVM)
Day two
- Marco van Brink (fNB)
- Lars Neveling (EDW/figawa)
- Dr. Johannes Ruppert (fNB)
- Prof. Claus Wrana (Compounds AG)