Health and food safety

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Pesticides

Summary
Evaluation
Commission Proposal
Legal Act
Implementation

Overall state of play:

Evaluation finalised: SWD(2020)87 on 20/05/2020.

State of play, main conclusions, outlook

The Commission finalised its evaluation of the legislation on pesticides covering the placing on the market of plant protection products and maximum residue levels setting (the evaluation covers Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 and Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 from their application until mid-2017).

REFIT Platform opinion

In its opinion on "multiple use/multiple source substances-chlorate" (Ref. XI.10.a), the REFIT Platform Stakeholder group recommended changing the definition of "pesticides residues" and proposing suitable maximum levels / maximum residue levels for multiple use substances under the relevant legislative framework. Within the REFIT Platform Government group different opinions were expressed. The Government group considered that the issues raised deserve thorough assessments and therefore welcomed the evaluation of the plant protection products legal framework. The REFIT Platform considered that informed discussion on the potential need to revise the legal framework can only take place once this evaluation will have been completed.

A second opinion on plant protection products (Ref. XI.22.a) was issued by the REFIT Platform. It considered that the issues raised (risk assessment of a given application to be conducted for all Member States grouped in one of three zones with similar agro-climatic conditions and by making mutual recognition of authorisations granted by one Member State compulsory for the Member States in the same zone) have been addressed by the European Commission, in its evaluation of the EU pesticides legislation (Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009), the results of which were published in May 2020.

State of Play

Evaluation finalised: SWD(2020)87 on 20/05/2020

Scope:

Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 and Regulation (EC) No 396/2005

Evaluation findings:

The evaluation¹ found that stakeholders from across the spectrum consider that the regulatory requirements for pesticides in the EU provide one the highest levels of safety in the world. It also shows that the Plant protection products (PPP) and Maximum residue levels of pesticides (MRL) Regulations are generally effective, although implementation can be further improved. The Regulations have a recognised added value at EU level and are relevant for the evolving needs of society. Coherence is mostly ensured, both internally within and between the Regulations, and externally with other EU legislation and international rules.

Efficiency stands out as the critical area requiring attention. Due to a lack of resources and capacity in the Member States, most of the procedures set out in the Regulations are suffering from severe delays, in particular those related to the renewal of approval of active substances and the authorisation of PPPs containing approved substances, which in turn negatively affects their effectiveness.

¹ Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council - COM/2020/208 final, and the accompanying Staff Working Document SWD/2020/87 final, both available at: https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/refit_en.

State of Play

As a follow-up to the evaluation, the Commission decided to focus on improving the implementation of the existing legislative framework. Sixteen areas have been identified where implementation in the short and medium term could be improved. These actions are expected to deliver substantial improvements in the effective implementation of the two Regulations in a short timeframe, which will make a substantial contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy.

The issue of "multiple use/multiple source substances-chlorate" has been specifically analysed in the evaluation. The REFIT Platform’s opinion coincided with the European Commission’s commitment to implement a multi-disciplinary action plan, which was agreed during the meeting of the heads of national food safety agencies on 23 May 2017. This action plan, which completed since 2020, consisted in:

• Setting a chlorate maximum level in drinking water – achieved by Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of 16 December 2020²;

• Recommending good food hygiene practices in order to reduce chlorate originating from chlorinated disinfectants (Commission notice on guidance document on addressing microbiological risks in fresh fruits and vegetables at primary production through good hygiene³)

• Maintaining the MRLs for foods intended for infants and young children at 0.01 mg/kg

• Setting MRLs for chlorate in regular food at levels based on occurrence data observed in all Member States – achieved by Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/749 of 4 June 2020⁴.

² https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2020/2184/oj

³ https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/biosafety/food_hygiene/guidance_en

⁴ https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/GA/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32020R0749