The European Commission has amended its proposed revision of the EU agrochemical registration Directive (91/414) representing a mixed result for the crop protection industry.

The European Commission has amended its proposed revision of the EU agrochemical registration Directive (91/414) in response to the large number of changes put forward by the European Parliament last year (Agrow No 530, p 8). The new proposal represents a mixed result for the crop protection industry. The Commission has rejected parliamentary calls to expand the range of hazard-based criteria used in pesticide assessments, a move welcomed by the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA). However, it also rejects a parliamentary amendment that would have maintained the provisional approval system for new active ingredients.

The introduction of certain hazard-based cut-off criteria in the assessment process was part of the Commission's original proposals, but the Parliament wanted this to be extended to include neurotoxic and immunotoxic properties. Last year, the ECPA warned that such a change would result in the banning of over 75% of ais. The Commission says that it has kept the original proposal to be in line with related EU legislation. However, it has agreed to amend the text to say that neurotoxic and immunotoxic ais should be approved as "candidates for substitution". This would make them subject to the proposed comparative assessment and product substitution system, where existing approved products could be removed from the market when suitable safer alternatives become available.

The ECPA remains concerned that the Commission has retained its original proposal on hazard criteria. "We remain strongly against the principle of all cut-offs, because they will ban many useful active substances based on hazard measurements instead of risk assessment. Separating the danger posed by a substance from how it is used makes absolutely no sense," says Friedhelm Schmider, the ECPA's director general. The existing proposal will still leave farmers with fewer solutions to protect their crops and "is a serious threat to the stability of European agriculture and food prices," he adds....

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