The EU has finalised a deal that will help Europe transform into a low-carbon economy and increase energy security. Fully in line with the Commission's proposals in January 2008, agreement has been reached on legally binding targets, by 2020, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, to establish a 20% share for renewable energy, and to improve energy efficiency by 20%.

On 13 January 2009 the European Parliament adopted in second reading a Regulation to replace the current legislation on plant protection products (91/414/EEC), based on a Commission proposal from 2006. The new legislation will increase the protection of human health and the environment, will lead to a better protection of agricultural production and will extend and deepen the single market of plant protection products.

On 19 December 2008, ECHA has published on its website a list of pre-registered substances. The list contains about 150,000 substances which were pre-registered by 65,000 companies between 1 June and 1 December 2008. ECHA has been screening part of the information submitted and due to the high number of pre-registrations ECHA will continue to check the information into the New Year. The fully screened list will be published at a later date.

The six-month REACH pre-registration period closed on 1 December at midnight. EU/EEA-based companies submitted well over two million pre-registrations covering more than 100 000 substances. ECHA is currently processing and verifying the alidity of the remaining unprocessed files. The list of pre-registered substances will be published on the ECHA website by 1 January 2009. Companies that have failed to preregister cannot continue manufacturing or importing their substance until they have submitted a full registration dossier.