European Parliament met today on an extraordinary session in Brussels to "take stock of the situation in the EU after the summit of the Heads of State and Government" of 14th and 15th December. The session enabled Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen to "take stock of his six months’ presidency", before the post is taken over by Germany on 1st January. On that date, the EU will come to include 27 member states, as Bulgaria and Romania join in. This morning, during an official ceremony at the plenary session, the President of Parliament, Josep Borrell, and the Finnish prime minister Vanhanen signed the Seventh Framework Program for Research and the Reach body of rules, which provides for "the registration, assessment, authorisation and restriction of chemicals". The Framework Program for Research, approved on 30th November, is the "EU’s key instrument to fund scientific research". It is endowed with 54 billion euros for a seven years’ period, and, as it has been specified today, "because of its size, it is the third financial instrument of the EU". Reach, adopted on 13th December by Parliament in Strasbourg, is aimed, instead, "at guaranteeing a high level of protection of human health and the environment, while also strengthening the competitiveness and innovation" of the chemical industry.
