With the Regulation REACH (EC) No 1907/2006, adopted on the 18th of December 2006, the European Union (EU) aims to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment while enhancing innovation and competitiveness. This new regulation regime represents a shift in the paradigm within which chemicals management was until then implemented.

The fourth report of the Health&Environment programme is part of a wider research programme, for the year 2009-2010, which focuses on the processes of elaboration, production and adoption of international norms, in the areas of Health and the Environment. On the basis of interviews carried out in Brussels and in Paris, and on a review of the existing literature, the fourth report of the Health&Environment programme seeks to provide tools to understand this extremely complex regulation - its functioning and implications - and to evaluate its effectiveness.

Read the synthesis.