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Germany welcomes common MRLs (maximum residue limits)
Dec. 5, 2007
German farmers will soon have a wider choice of agrochemicals imported from other EU member states when the European Commission's programme to unify maximum residue limits (MRLs) have been completed. The German federal office for consumer protection and food safety, the BVL, has welcomed the Commission's progress to harmonise MRLs across the region.
The Commission is proceding with the implementation of the EU pesticide MRL Regulation 396/2005. It has issued draft proposals for establishing the remaining set of Annexes that will hold the final lists of EU-wide harmonised MRLs. The proposals were given a positive vote by the EU regulatory committee in October. The new measures are expected to apply to all EU member states by mid-2008. This change will conclude the EU-wide harmonisation of MRLs that Regulation 396/2005 introduced.
In their negotiations with other EU stakeholders on harmonised MRLs, the German authorities aimed to maintain the "high" level of protection that exists for the country's consumers, the BVL says. The import of fruit and vegetables from another EU member state has often led to complaints due to MRL transgressions. For agrochemicals that had yet to gain approval in Germany, a default MRL of 0.01 mg/kg of food products was usually applied. However, the BVL notes that this value was based on precautionary concerns to set limits as low as possible, rather than being based on toxicology.
Import problems have also occurred due to a lack of German registrations for some agrochemicals that are approved in other member states, which is often due to crop differences. For example, registrations on citrus fruit may not be sought in northern Europe as the crops are not grown there, the BVL points out.
If approval for a pesticide existed in another EU member state, importers would have a claim to having that original member state's MRL accepted in Germany. This arrangement has been secured by the EU's free trade agreement. To import agrochemicals from other member states, importers had required a general authorisation to supply products to Germany. Following the harmonisation of MRLs, this latter arrangement can be cut, the BVL adds.
Source: AgroNews
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