elni Review 2007, Issue 1,  pp. 34-38. https://doi.org/10.46850/elni.2007.006

The purpose of the REACH Regulation is to comprehensively restructure European chemicals law. On 27 June 2006, the Council adopted its Common Position on the basis of the political agreement reached on 13 December 2005. Since September 2006, the European Parliament (EP) has been deliberating the proposed regulation, on the basis of the Council's approved text. This process is now at the 2nd reading stage. This 2nd reading was accompanied by "trilogue" negotiations, between the Parliament, Council Presidency and the Commission, with the aim of achieving a so-called "agreement in the 2nd reading", i.e. a resolution of the European Parliament that the Council could then accept without any changes. In difficult negotiations, this aim was finally achieved. The resulting agreement was then formally approved on 13 December 2006 by the European Parliament's plenary assembly and on 18 December 2006 by the Council. The new Regulation is to be promulgated in the Official Journal in December 2006, and the Regulation enters into force on 1 June 2007.
The trilogue agreement represents the successful conclusion to a reform process lasting more than eight years. It brings great progress in the areas of environmental, consumer and worker protection, while giving companies throughout industry new innovation opportunities via improved knowledge about substances.

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References

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