Brussels, 26/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - Finding ways of preventing acts of terrorism and making “home-made bombs” more difficult are the challenges that will be have to be answered by the working group on the regulation of potentially dangerous substances when it meets on Wednesday 27 July. Following the bloody killings committed in Norway, this experts' meeting will attempt to examine the means that could be put in place at a European level to limit the sale of available chemical products, which could possibly be used for a home-made bomb making. The meeting will also try to avoid penalising consumers and agricultural producers in this regard. Representatives from the Norwegian authorities have been invited to attend the meeting. There are two sides to the problem. One part of it involves thinking about mechanisms for controlling products on the internal market. The suspect in the Norwegian attacks apparently purchased certain chemical products legally on the internet in Poland, indicated the Polish National Security agency (ABW) on Monday 25 July, according to a report by AFP. The second part involves experts designating institutions and individuals responsible for exercising such control measures. Michele Cercone, the spokesperson for the commissioner for European affairs, expressed his regret on Monday 25 July that the European Commission proposals in 2010 to limit the availability of chemical products remained a dead letter and that only after these “shocking events” had a compromise proved more easy to locate, explains AFP. This appears to be what has happened today, confirmed a Polish diplomat, who declared that “the Commission proposals will be updated” at the meeting on Wednesday 27 July. The Polish Presidency is therefore expecting this meeting (which will certainly be followed by other meetings) to advocate strict controls of chemical products and an amendment in the procedures for manufacturing agricultural fertilisers. Nitrate ammonium is particularly targeted. The concentration of this chemical in agricultural fertilisers and other products will be subject to further negotiations. The Polish diplomat asserted that previously “discussions on how much nitrate ammonium is permitted (which varies between 9% and 40% in the different member states), did not produce a compromise”. He added that he was confident that after the Oslo events “no one would be defending its manufacturers”. (J.K./transl.fl)