Statistics regulation completes pesticides package

The final strand of the European Commission’s four-part ‘pesticides package’ reached the statute book last month (December), with the publication of Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on pesticides.

The statistics regulation sets out rules for collecting information on the annual amounts of pesticides placed on the market and the annual amounts of pesticides used in each Member State.

This legislation joins the recently approved Directive 2009/127/EC dealing with machinery for pesticide application, which adds an obligation to ensure the protection of the environment in addition to the existing obligation to protect the safety and health of workers.

Together with Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market and Directive 2009/128/EC establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides (see EC publishes new pesticides legislation for more information), which entered European law in November, they complete the European Union’s ‘pesticides package’.

This package introduces fundamental changes in how pesticides are placed on the market and used in European agriculture. For example, the Regulation concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market means that active substances in pesticides that are judged to be particularly hazardous will be outlawed.

And the Directive establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides demands that each Member State adopt a National Action Plan to set “quantitative objectives, targets, measures and timetables to reduce risks and impacts of pesticide use on human health and the environment”. Furthermore, each Member State must “encourage the development of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and of alternative approaches or techniques in order to reduce dependency on the use of pesticides”.

You can read or download the Regulations and Directives in six languages in ENDUREs European documents section. If the language you require is not here, go to the EUR-Lex, website which carries details of all European Union law in all 23 official languages.

The UK’s Chemicals Regulation Directorate has a useful section of its website devoted to the EU Thematic Strategy for Pesticides, including links to all official documents and initial assessments of the impacts of these changes.

For further information:

• Download the new legislation from ENDUREs library of European documents (six languages)
• for the new legislation in all 23 official European Union languages EUR-Lex
• UK Chemicals Regulation Directorate for an overview of the EU Thematic Strategy for Pesticides
• ENDURE’s resume of the pesticides package
• ENDURE’s library of useful national policy documents
• Italian stakeholders tackle their first NAP