Brussels, 17/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - On 16 January in Strasbourg, the European Parliament adopted the new regulation for implementing the Rotterdam Convention in the EU and establishing a procedure of preliminary consent (with relevant information) to be applied to certain dangerous chemical products and pesticides that are marketed internationally. This procedure provides official information about decisions made by importer countries and whether they clearly indicate whether they accept imports of certain chemical products or not. The procedure also ensures respect of these decisions by exporter countries.
By adopting the amended report by Johannes Blokland (IND/DEM, Netherlands) by a large majority (679 for, 9 against, 8 abstentions), MEPs gave their approval to the compromise amendments negotiated with the Council. This will therefore allow for an agreement in the first reading on the text and the entry into force of the next European regulation.
A European regulation for implementing the Rotterdam Convention has existed since 2003 but the European Court of Justice contested its legal basis, which led the European Commission to revise its text. Technical amendments were added in the new version and the Commission also amended the explicit consent procedure.
As sought by the Commission, the text approved by the Parliament makes the preliminary explicit consent procedure more flexible so that the task of dangerous chemical exporter countries is facilitated when they request explicit consent from importer countries.
Although it approves simplification of the procedure, parliament obtained temporary derogations for exporter countries waiting for consent to be granted only if the chemical product is registered or authorised by the country.
Temporary authorisation should be done a case by case basis and for exports from a member state to a country that is not a member of the OECD. The European Commission and the exporter member state will have to take the possible consequences for the environment and human health into account for exports.
The European Parliament has also shorted the time for temporary authorisations, validity of which will be a year (instead of the two years proposed by the Commission. After this deadline, explicit consent of the importer country will be required.
The Rotterdam Convention aims to encourage the sharing of responsibility and cooperation between the parties in the trade of certain dangerous chemic products to protect health and the environment. It also aims to contribute to the rational and ecological use of these products by facilitating the exchange of information on their characteristics and by instituting a national process for decision making on their import and export.
This international convention was signed by the Community in 1998 under the auspices of the United Nations (UNEP). The EU's ratification instrument was submitted to the UN secretariat in December 2002 and the Convention entered into force in February 2004. Nevertheless, in January 2006, the decision by the EU Council to approve ratification (decision 2003/106/EC) was annulled by the ECJ (C-94/03) because the legal basis (Article 175 only) was unsuitable. The ECJ's ruling did not question EU ratification but demanded adoption of a new decision complying with the given decision. The new ratification decision, approved by Parliament is now based on Articles 133 (Trade) and 175 (Environment), together with the relevant provisions from Article 300. The new regulation will replace the 2003 regulation still in application in the EU. (A.N.)