The European Parliament's legislative observatory (OEIL) reports that MEPs are set to give Reach its second reading on 24 October this year. The Regulation – on the registration, evaluation, and authorization of chemicals – had its first parliamentary reading on 17 November 2005. Although a political agreement was then reached in the Competitiveness Council of 13 December, the common position has not yet been adopted, because the European Union’s legal linguists have to draw it up in all Member States’ languages. That should be done by this coming May. The intervening months will give the different stakeholders time to hone their arguments towards MEPs. The employers' lobbies are hoping to get even more flexibility added to the system, while trade unions and NGOs want it beefed up, in particular by giving industry more binding obligations on substitution and setting a 5-year authorization period for dangerous substances. This will be made particularly difficult by the fact that the Council’s common position can only be voted down or amendments adopted by absolute majority. The European Commission expects Reach to come into application in April 2007.