EU ministers bring down the curtain on 2004

EU environment ministers held their final council meeting of the year in Brussels on Monday. ENDS Europe DAILY reported yesterday on an agreement on revised battery rules. A draft of the deal was issued today (see link below). We report in separate articles today on the outcome of talks on the Århus convention and climate change, and on other items below.

* Reach chemicals reform:

The Dutch presidency had originally planned to secure an informal agreement on parts of Reach by now. In the end it had to content itself with establishing baseline national positions from which negotiations can begin.