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50 years of protecting Europe's environment
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Today the European Union has the most environmentally friendly arsenal of rules in the world and has done more to tackle pressing ecological problems, such as climate change, than any other major power.
But it has not always been like this. Caring for the environment did not feature in the Treaty of Rome, the document that gave birth to the modern day EU. Yet environmental problems were never far away. Europe’s love affair with the car was moving into top gear, industry was busy belching out pollutants and raw sewage was being pumped into our rivers and seas.
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The European environment – state and outlook 2010: Synthesis
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The SOER 2010 Synthesis provides an overview of the European environment's state, trends and prospects, integrating the main findings of SOER 2010.
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The European environment – state and outlook 2010
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Synthesis
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REACH: A new regulation for chemical substances
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The new European law known as REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) was adopted by the Member States and the European Parliament and has entered into force in June 2007. By tabling this new legislation, the European Commission demonstrated its determination to protect Europeans' health and the environment. Indeed, recent scientific research has demonstrated that certain chemicals enter and accumulate in living organisms, including humans. While all substances placed on the market after 1981 have been tested to assess their safety, that is not the case for the tens of thousands of chemicals marketed before that date. That is why the European Union has developed this ambitious new Regulation on chemicals, one of the key sectors of the European economy.
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Chemicals
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Multimedia
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Controlling chemicals - Protecting human health and the environment
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Chemicals are a fact of modern life: almost all the products we use on a daily basis are either made from them or contain them. But without proper controls, they can be dangerous. Unsurprisingly, Europe’s lawmakers have always taken an extremely serious approach towards policies surrounding chemicals. As a result, EU citizens benefit from some of the toughest chemicals safety laws in the world.
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Environmental topics
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Chemicals
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Multimedia
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Environment and health
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