Brussels, 04/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - Due to the Commission's policy aiming to accelerate the assessment of substances present in phyto-pharmaceutical products, more than 60% of the 848 substances found on the market in 1993 will have disappeared by 2003, for the benefit of the environment and human health. Around twenty of these substances have already been banned. Around 320 will be outlawed by next July. This will include insecticides, fungicides and herbicides for which their manufacturers will not have sent the administrative paperwork to the competent European health authorities by May 2003 to prove their harmlessness. New notification procedures introduced by the Commission in 200-2001 compel manufacturers to "defend" their products so they can legally continue with their production before a decision is taken. For some substances, manufacturers have decided, for economic reasons, to withdraw from this obligation, which will in effect mean that their products are taken off the market. The assessment exercise will also begin for another 200 substances. The Commission will decide on these at the beginning of 2003. 150 of these substances could also be withdrawn from the market. The Commission suspects that the industry will not bother defending them.
Directive 91/414/EEC on the authorisation, use and control of pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides) establishes a harmonised authorisation system for the marketing of pesticides whereby Member States have the right to authorise, on their own territory, products containing active substances as soon as they receive the approval of national authorities after risk assessment. According to the terms of the directive, 848 substances are already legally on the market but, in order to remain there, they should be the subject of a complementary assessment before July 2003, or wait until a decision on them is taken at Community level in order either to authorise their prolonged use or, on the other hand, to ban them. The Commission aims to have taken decisions on all defended substances before end 2008, thus completing the harmonisation of active substances allowed in pesticides in the EU.
In order to strengthen this provision, the Commission presented a new strategy on Thursday aimed at reducing the risks of pesticides used in farming, while keeping good production levels. This thematic strategy, set out in a communication to the Parliament and Council, concerns the sustainable use of pesticides. It aims to reduce to a minimum the dangers and risks for health and environment linked to the use of pesticides, step up controls on the use and distribution of pesticides, replace the most dangerous harmful active substances by safer substances (mainly non chemical), promote the transition towards farming without pesticides or to the use of limited quantities of pesticides, and set in place a transparent system of notification and monitoring of progress accomplished, especially thanks to appropriate indicators. All parties interested - farmers, NGOs, industry, social partners and public authorities - are invited to make their comments known to the Commission before 30 November 2002. The results of the consultation will help the Commission to prepare, during 2003, a detailed strategy that it will present to the Council and Parliament early 2004. This thematic strategy is included in the sixth action programme for the environment.