Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2006
The European Union is going about its regular business. It is puttingforth proposals to keep the Doha Round alive, continuing tonegotiate a major trade agreement with Mercosur in South America,keeping peace-keeping troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina, spendingdevelopment aid in numerous poor countries, financially supportingthe Palestine Authority while giving Israel preferential access tothe EU market, investigating Microsoft's business practices, andbattling over the reach and scope of an ambitious new legislativeattempt to regulate the chemical industry. The EU Greenhouse TradingScheme, the largest greenhouse emissions trading scheme in theworld, is up and running. The European Central Bank is makingmonetary policy decisions while the euro makes up almost 20% ofcentral banks' foreign currency holdings. The European MedicinesAgency (EMEA) has called for suspending the sale of the children'svaccine Hexavac. The European Court of Justice, for its part, hasrecently declared illegal a high profile Italian law designed toprevent foreign takeover of Italian energy companies. And thecommissioner for Health and Consumer Protection is playing a leadingrole in the EU's response to the threat of a pandemic of avian birdflu.