The European Union

The European Parliament is the elected body that represents the EU s citizens and is, together with the Council, responsible for the legislative process and for the budget. The present parliament, elected in 2004, has 732 members. 

The European Commission is one of the EU s key institutions and represents and upholds the interests of Europe as a whole (EU 2006b). The Commission acts with complete political independence. It has 25 members, the so-called commissioners - one from each EU country, and each commissioner has responsibility for a particular EU policy area. The Commission must ensure that the legislations adopted by the Council and Parliament are being put into effect. The Commission is also the only institution that has the right to propose new EU legislation. The Commission is assisted by a civil service made up of 36 Directorates-General (DGs) and services. 

Toxicological Risk Assessments of Chemicals A Practical Guide 

The secondary legislation consists mainly of regulations, directives, and recommendations. The purpose of the regulations is the unihcation of the law and thus, encroach furthest on the national legal systems as they are mandatory, i.e., apply in full in all Member States, and have direct applicability, i.e., do not have to be implemented into national law. 

In contrast to the regulations, the purpose of the directives is harmonization of the law. A directive is binding on the Member States as regards the objective to be achieved but leaves it to the national authorities to decide on how the agreed objective is to be incorporated into their national legal systems. That means that a directive does not supersede the laws of the Member States but places the Member States under an obligation to adapt their national law in hne with the EU rules. 

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For countries in the European Union, the specifications issued by European directives that replace, when they exist, the national specifications. 

Collaborative R D has been carried out since the inception of the European Community and the The Maastricht Treaty made R D one of the priority policies of the European Union... 

The pressure equipment directive was adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council in May 1997. It harmonises the national laws of the 15 Member States of the European Union relating to equipment subject to the pressure risk. That directive is one of the series of technical harmonisation directives such as for machinery, medical devices, simple pressure vessels, gas appliances and so on, which were foreseen by the Communities programme for the elimination of technical barriers to trade. It therefore aims to ensure the free placing on the market and putting into service of the equipment concerned within the European Union and the European Economic Area. At the same time it permits a flexible regulatory environment, allowing European industry to develop new techniques increasing thereby its international competitiveness. 

As referred to above, most of the modules involve the intervention of a third party, the so-called notified bodies. These bodies are designated by Member States as being competent to carry out the certification tasks for which they are notified. As a precondition for their notification they must fulfil the minimum criteria which are set out in the relevant directives. These conditions vary from independence, impartiality and professional integrity, to technical competence, possession of or access to necessary facilities and to liability insurance. Once notified, the Commission publishes a list of all notified bodies in the Official Journal, It is worth noting that there is free competition between notified bodies and that manufacturers can make their own choice from all notified bodies notified within the European Union. 

The directive will initially come into force on 29 November 1999. From that date until 28 May 2002 manufacturers have a choice between applying the pressure equipment directive or continuing with the application of the existing national legislation. From 29 May 2002 the pressure equipment directive will be obligatory throughout the European Union. 

Most wines with <14% alcohol are classed as table wines because they are usuaHy consumed with meals. Note that as used here, premium wines are included. In the countries of the European Union (EU), table wine means only ordinary or everyday wine. Sparkling wines are included in this group because producing the sparkle and retaining it during consumption of a botde by few people necessitates a modest alcohol level. The "generous" group of... 

BATF permits no more acetic acid than 1.4 g/L in ted table and 1.2 g/L in white and dessert wines, Califotnia and the European Union slightly less. California requites a minimum fixed acidity as tartaric of 4.0 g/L for ted table, 3.0 g/L for white table, and 2.5 g/L for dessert wines. Califotnia also requites a minimum extract in dry wines of 18 g/L for ted and 17 g/L for white, but other states generally do not specify a minimum. In the United States, maximum total sulfur dioxide is 350 mg/L. Fat less is usually used today. European maxima ate lower for dry wines and higher for sweet table wines. 

Table 5. Members of the European Union (EU) and the International Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)...

In 1994, the former European Economic Community (EEC or EC) became the European Union. It originated as the Common Market created by the Treaty of Paris ia 1951 and the Treaty of Rome ia 1958. Greece joined in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1984, and Austria, Einland, and Sweden in 1994. 

Sorbic acid is produced and marketed in the United States in the dust-free powder form. The 1995 tmckload (TL) Hst price was U.S. 8.60— 8.80/kg for food grade and 12.41/kg for National Formulary (NF) grade. Water-soluble potassium sorbate is marketed as a powder or as granules. The 1995 TL Hst price was U.S. 7.90— 8.15/kg for food grade and 11.75/kg for NF grade. In addition to Eastman, the only U.S. producer, there are four Japanese producers and two producers in the European Union. Worldwide consumption in 1994 was approximately 2700—3000 metric tons and the nameplate productive capacity was approximately 2900—3100 metric tons. 

Soybeans are the most important oilseed in international trade. The United States, Bra2il, and Argentina are the main suppHers to the export markets. In 1994—1995, United States exports of 22.0 x 10 metric tons represented 32% of the domestic production, 16% of the world crop, and 69% of the international trade in soybeans. The European Union, Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan were the largest importers of soybeans (51). Japan, which produces <5% of its soybean needs, is the largest single soybean customer of the United States. Japan imported 3.4 x 10 t in 1994 (51). The United States also exports processed soybean products, eg, oil and meal. For 1990—1993, an average of 47% of the crop was exported as whole beans and processed products. 

Production and consumption statistics for sucrose are shown ia Table 1. World production of sucrose dufing 1993—1994 was - 110 million metric tons, of which - 64% was derived from sugarcane. The largest producer is the European Union (EU), followed closely by India and Bra2il. In 1993—1994, the United States ranked fourth in production. World raw sugar prices from 1990—1995 ranged from 20.20—32. l0/kg (10). 

The European Union (EU) has a systematic classification of white sugars, shown in Table 10. Codex JUimentarius also has issued specifications for white sugars (17). The EU standards are widely used throughout Eastern Europe and Asia. Other countries, eg, Brazd and the People s RepubHc of China, have their own domestic specifications, which are also appHed to imports. 

Eig. 1. Recovered beet sugar per hectare, 1960s—1990s, where A represents the European Union and B, the United States. 

In the European Union, coal-derived complex chemical substances, ie, those contained in the European Inventory of Existing Commercial Chemical Substances, have been classified for carcinogenicity in the twenty-first adaptation to technical progress of the European Commission (EC) Dangerous Substances Directive 1994 67/548/EEC (57). The EC Regulation 793/93 requires data sets to be submitted by producers or importers to the... 

This work was financially supported by the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious affairs (25%) and the European Union (75%) in the framework of EPEAEK program. 

Established OELs such as OSHA PELs and ACGIH TLVs, cover only a small fraction of the substances that are found in the workplace, and even for those chemicals discrepancies are commonly encountered among the different lists, For this reason, the European Union (EU) is trying an approach in which... 

The Council of the European Union. Council Directive 98/24/EC of 7, April 1998 on the protection of the health and safety of workers from the risks related to chemical agents at ujork. Offi cial Journal No. LI 31, May 1998. 

Guiding values for particulate material PMjq (aerodynamic diameter. smaller than 10 pm) are given by the United States and the European Union. Major debates are in progress regarding the importance of introducing values for the size PMt j. 

A new CEN European standard, EN 12874, was issued in 2001. It will be used by all European nations that belong to the European Union (EU) that are members of the Comite Enropeean de Normalisation (CEN), as well as other non-EU nations that are members of the CEN. It will supersede BS 7224 in England, FEB and BAM in Germany, and standards in use in other European countries. This is a very comprehensive standard covering types of flame arresters not covered in US, Canadian, and other standards. It contains test procedures for the following types of flame arresters ... 

J.E. thanks the European Union (Project Localization and Transfer of Hydrogen, No. CHRX CT 940582) and the Spanish Ministry of Education (Project Crystal Engineering, No. PB96-0001-C03-03) for financial support. We thank Dr. Scott Henderson for help with the preparation of the manuscript. 

Eudralex The rules governing medicinal products in the European Union, Vols. 1-9, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1998. 

We gratefully acknowledge support from the European Union Human Capital and Mobility network n°ERBCHXCT930360. 

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