In the EU the placing on the market of plant protection products is regulated by Directive 91/414/EC.
The precondition for national authorisations of pesticides in any EU member state is the inclusion of the active ingredient in Annex I of this EU directive. Substances which had been on the market in the EU prior to an appointed date were classified as “existing active substances”. Substances which were introduced into the market after this date are so called “new active substances”. For new substances, an application for notification can be submitted at any time.
The existing active substances were classified in 4 groups i.e. the 1st through the 4th stage. Notification dossiers had to be submitted to the corresponding rapporteur member states (RMS), according to the deadlines specified for each stage in the respective regulations. The submission phase of the dossiers for existing substances terminated with the deadline for substances of list 4 on 30.11.2005. Currently, the review process for a number of existing substances is ongoing. In September 2007, the regulations for stage 3 and 4 were updated by a further regulation with the aim to speed up the review process for existing substances.
3rd stage:
4th stage:
1112/2002, 2229/2004 and 647/2007Regulation amending the regulations for 3rd and 4th stage:
1095/2007For the current stage of the Annex I listing of existing and new active substances please refer to Doc. SANCO/629/00
Once an active substance is listed on Annex I of Directive 91/414/EC, plant protection products have to be authorised by the corresponding authorities in the EU member states. National registration legalisations are also based on this directive.
