Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2009)267 - Placing on the market and use of biocidal products - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2009)267 - Placing on the market and use of biocidal products. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2009)267  |
| date | 12-06-2009 |
Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market (hereinafter the Directive) establishes a harmonised regulatory framework for the authorisation and the placing on the market of biocidal products, the mutual recognition of these authorisations within the Community and the establishment at Community level of a positive list of active substances that may be used in biocidal products. In its Article 18 i, the Directive requires the Commission to draw up a report seven years after its entry into force and to submit the report to the Council. The report shall address the implementation of the Directive and the functioning up to that date of the simplified procedures (frame formulations, low-risk biocidal products and commodity substances). In accordance with the same provision, the Commission may accompany its report, if necessary, by proposals for amendment of the Directive.
The Commission submitted the report on 8 October 2008 (COM(2008)620) and proposed at this occasion to extend the review programme, the transitional period, and certain provisions on data protection that accompany this period for an additional three years.
Further to the proposal already presented, and based on the conclusions of the ‘seven years’ report, the present proposal for revision of Directive 98/8/EC aims to tackle the identified weaknesses of the regulatory framework during the first eight years of its implementation, to improve and update certain elements of the system and to avoid problems anticipated in the future.
The review of the implementation of the Directive has indicated that for the evaluation of active substances, the simplified procedures provided for in the Directive, notably for low-risk products (Annex IA to the Directive), have no real effect, and that in addition the data requirements and data waiving provisions may be unclear or inconsistently applied or lead to a disproportionate burden in some circumstances.
In addition, although product authorisation has not yet started, simplification of the procedures concerning the authorisation of biocidal products in the Member States may be beneficial in reducing costs and administrative burden for companies and public authorities alike. The proposal is seeking to improve the existing regulatory framework, without reducing the high level of protection for the environment and human and animal health.
The proposal also intends to simplify the data protection rules, to avoid duplicating vertebrate animal studies through mandatory data-sharing, increase harmonisation of fees systems in the Member States, establish rules for parallel trade of biocidal products, and cover articles or materials treated with biocidal products.
The current regulatory framework for biocidal products is established by Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market and a number of implementing Commission Regulations, in particular Commission Regulation (EC) No 1451/2007 on the second phase of the 10-year work programme referred to in Article 16 i of Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market. .
The proposal to revise the Directive takes into consideration the recent revision of EU legislation on Chemicals with the adoption of Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH) as well as Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures, amending and repealing Directives 67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC, and amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006.
Due note is also taken of changes in horizontal legislation that affect the biocides regulatory framework, such as those related to the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (recent amendment of Decision 1999/468/EC). Furthermore, it also takes into consideration the general rules and the obligations for Member States under Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 organising the market surveillance relating to the marketing of products.
1. A first consultation workshop was held on 21-22 January 2008 in Ljubljana under the auspices of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU. The objective of this workshop was to allow a first informal exchange of views between Member States and Commission representatives on issues to be addressed in the revision of the Directive. An outline of these issues is available at: ec.europa.eu/environment/biocides/workshop
2. An additional discussion was organised in Bonn on 7-8 April 2008 gathering more than 140 representatives of industry, NGOs and competent authorities. Participants debated about the need to streamline the scope of the Directive, among others by clarifying border cases and product-types definition, about the product authorisation (e.g. frame formulation, central versus mutual recognition), about data protection rules, as well as simplified or more flexible data requirements approach.
3. A wider consultation of stakeholders was organised through a conference hosted by the Commission in Brussels on 23 May 2008 with the participation of representatives from different sectors of the biocides industry, individual companies, consultants and national governments. After the participants were informed about the key issues for the revision (presentations given by Commission officers) they had the opportunity to comment and debate specific issues of interest.
4. A targeted stakeholder consultation was also carried out in the framework of a study in preparation of the impact assessment for the revision of the Directive. The consultation involved interviews with representatives of the industry (including small and medium-sized enterprises), national administrations/controlling bodies, environmental protection and consumers' associations and others, based on questionnaires that were previously sent to these stakeholders to prepare the discussions.
1. The consultation conference in Ljubljana (Commission & Member States) and the succeeding conference in Bonn (Member States & Industry) focused on numerous topics of interest for the revision, the most prominent of those being:
– the revision of the data protection provisions and (mandatory) data-sharing;
– the scope of the regulatory framework (to include or not the use phase; to add provisions about in-situ generated substances and active substance precursors; the relationship with other pieces of Community legislation; reduction or not of the number of product-types; definition of a biocidal product and definition of placing on the market; how to regulate articles/materials containing biocides);
– the lack of harmonised provisions in the current Directive regarding product authorisation or the procedure to follow after the inclusion of an active substance in the Community positive list;
– the possibility to have a single Community authorisation for biocidal products; the role of a centralised Agency for biocides; effectiveness of implementation and enforcement at Member State level;
– how to facilitate the (future) mutual recognition procedure;
– the harmonisation and proportionality of fees charged by Member States, and ways to alleviate the financial burden of compliance for SMEs;
– the performance so far of the Directive's simplified procedures (Annex IA; Annex IB; prospects for frame formulation concept);
– the need to clarify the possibility for waiving data requirements; the use in the new instrument of data-waiving provisions from the REACH Regulation; the establishment of a tiered system of data requirements (as was the original idea when the Directive was adopted);
– specific rules for low-volume or niche market biocides;
– the need to develop harmonised efficacy requirements.
Finally, the appropriateness of adopting specific provisions on parallel trade; and the pros and cons of turning the Directive into a Regulation were also discussed. The Commission has taken into consideration all the - sometimes conflicting - opinions expressed by the Member States in the development of its proposal, while trying to identify the best elements amongst them that would contribute to a coherent and workable regulatory framework.
2. During the consultation event in May 2008 in Brussels (participation of various stakeholders, mostly industry and enterprises' representatives), the participants had a chance to express their opinions on simplified procedures; data requirements; data protection and data-sharing; the procedure for biocidal product authorisation; the fees applied by Member States and articles or materials containing biocides.
In general (although many varying opinions were voiced), the simplified procedures of Annex IA and Annex IB were considered a failure; the frame formulation procedure has not been tried yet but there seems to be some confusion as to how it would work and different expectations as to what it would offer; the data requirements are seen as particularly strict and in some cases as non-proportionate or inflexible; the data protection system could be further clarified and simplified, and certain elements of it should be amended; the industry seems to have come to terms with introducing mandatory sharing of vertebrate animal studies; providing for harmonised authorisation procedures is seen as a plus by the industry, and even better if a centralised procedure were adopted; the fees or at least the fee systems will need to be harmonised; and a solution should be found for articles or materials that are containing biocidal products, in particular those articles or materials imported from third countries. All these concerns were taken into consideration and are reflected in the proposal.
3. The targeted consultation served mostly the purpose of obtaining the necessary quantitative/qualitative information for preparing the impact assessment report presented in support to this proposal. It covered all the issues discussed with the Member States in Ljubljana, in Bonn and with the stakeholders in Brussels and the responses were mostly the same with those expressed in the three consultation events.
An open consultation was conducted over the internet from 15/11/2006 to 15/01/2007. The Commission received 250 response(s). The results of the open internet consultation were incorporated in the Commission report on the impacts of the implementation of Directive 98/8/EC available at: ec.europa.eu/environment/biocides/study .
To support this proposal, several studies were carried out by external contractors:
– a study to assess the impact of the revision of Directive 98/8/EC concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market;
– a study on impacts of possible measures to manage articles or materials treated with biocides, in particular when imported;
– a study on the impacts of the implementation of Directive 98/8/EC on biocidal products; and
– a study on the assessment of different options to address risks from the use phase of biocides.
These studies were evaluated by the Commission and taken into consideration while preparing the current proposal. In particular, the study to assess the impact of the revision of Directive 98/8/EC concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market evaluated the economic, social and environmental impacts of the different policy options. The conclusions of this study are directly reflected in the impact assessment described in the following section.
More information on the studies is available at: ec.europa.eu/environment/biocides/study and ec.europa.eu/environment/biocides/revision.
The Impact Assessment addresses five policy issues that require action:
– Unchanged policy;
– Extend scope to cover processing aids and food contact materials;
– Extend scope to cover treated materials containing biocides.
The assessment concluded that including materials containing biocides in the scope of the Directive would significantly increase the costs to industry. However, although the equal treatment of industry, and environmental and human health benefits are difficult to quantify, they are likely to be significant. Including, in particular food processing aids in the scope of the Directive is likely to result in a complicated process of authorisation under two legal frameworks which may lead to some duplication of efforts. The related costs are likely to outweigh the limited benefits resulting from better control of environmental impacts and greater regulatory certainty.
– Unchanged policy;
– Strengthening of mutual recognition;
– Single Member State authorisation;
– Community authorisation.
The assessment concluded that a Community authorisation or a single Member State authorisation would be the most efficient systems and would provide incentives for innovation of products based on new active substances/low-risk products. However, as the Member States have expressed significant concerns about a full centralisation of the product authorisation or a single Member State authorisation due to reduced role for the other Member States, a combination of the Community authorisation for certain products with the strengthening of the mutual recognition process for other products appears to be the most acceptable solution.
– Unchanged policy;
– Mandatory sharing of vertebrate animal test data for product authorisation;
– Mandatory sharing of vertebrate animal test data for active substance approval and for product authorisation.
The assessment concluded that mandatory data-sharing for active substance approval and for product authorisation implies the highest total cost savings to applicants, possibly the highest number of safer products remaining on the market and the highest number of animals saved.
– Unchanged policy;
– Rewording provisions concerning data waiving and the use of existing information;
– Reformulating the system for low-risk substances/products.
The policy options address two types of problems: high data requirements and low attractiveness of the simplified procedures, in particular for low-risk and basic substances. The assessment concluded that all the options have significant potential to reduce costs for industry and that the last two options would also significantly reduce the numbers of vertebrate animal tests. In order to meet the objectives of the revision, the best option seems to be a combination of data waiving with the use of existing information and a new approach to low-risk biocidal products.
– Unchanged policy;
– Partially harmonised fee structure;
– Centralised fee system;
– Specific provisions for SMEs.
The assessment concluded that a partially harmonised fee structure may encourage the development of more new active substances and the retention of more existing active substances. It should also reduce the costs for the approval of active substances for several product types. The last option will make the procedure less costly for SMEs, which should help them to stay on the market. A fully centralised fee system would raise questions concerning the subsidiarity principle as it would transfer the competences over setting the levels of fees from the Member States to the Community.
The Commission carried out an impact assessment which is attached to this proposal.
Contents
- Legal elements of the proposal
- Budgetary implication
- 1.1. Grounds for and objectives of the proposal
- 1.2. General context
- 1.3. 130Existing provisions in the area of the proposal
- 1.4. 140Consistency with the other policies and objectives of the Union
- 2. Consultation of interested parties and impact assessment
- 2.1. Consultation of interested parties
- 2.1.1. 211Consultation methods, main sectors targeted and general profile of respondents
- 2.1.2. 212Summary of responses and how they have been taken into account
- 2.2. Collection and use of expertise
- 2.3. 230Impact assessment
- POLICY ISSUE 1: SCOPE
- POLICY ISSUE 2: PRODUCT AUTHORISATION
- POLICY ISSUE 3: DATA-SHARING
- POLICY ISSUE 4: DATA REQUIREMENTS
- POLICY ISSUE 5: FEES CHARGED BY MEMBER STATES FOR CARRYING OUT THE PROCEDURES OF THE DIRECTIVE
- 3.1. 305Summary of the proposed action
- 3.2. 310Legal basis
- 3.3. 329Subsidiarity principle
- 3.4. Proportionality principle
- 3.5. Choice of instruments
- 5. Additional information
- 5.1. 510Simplification
- 5.2. 520Repeal of existing legislation
- 5.3. Review/revision/sunset clause
- 5.4. 540Recasting
- 5.5. 560European Economic Area
The revision of the Biocides Directive intends to remedy a number of weaknesses that were identified during the first eight years of its implementation, to anticipate problems with the upcoming authorisation and mutual recognition procedure, and to update and adapt the instrument to recent policy developments.
First, the Directive is turned into a Regulation. As a result, there will be no need for a transposition period or for national transposition measures, which is also expected to ensure more harmonised implementation of the regulatory framework in the Member States.
Among the proposed amendments of the scope, particularly relevant are the extension of the scope to biocides in materials that might come into contact with food and the new provisions on articles or materials containing biocidal products.
In particular with regard to the latter, under the current situation, if an article is treated in the EU then only a biocidal product that is authorised for that purpose may be used. However, if the article is treated with a biocidal product outside the EU and then imported, there is no control over the substance it may incorporate. This could represent risks for human health or for the environment if active substances that are not assessed or even banned in the EU are incorporated in such goods which are then imported into the EU. In addition, this situation is discriminatory to the EU industry, and could lead to the production of treated articles or materials being moved out of the EU in order to circumvent restrictions on certain substances. As part of the revision of the Biocides Directive, it is proposed that all articles or materials must be treated only with biocidal products authorised for that purpose in at least one Member State.
Labelling requirements are accompanying the provision on articles or materials treated with biocides. These have two objectives: to inform consumers that the article was treated with a biocidal product; and to alert competent and/or customs authorities in the Member States and trigger any existing inspection provisions aimed at ensuring compliance. The labelling provisions apply equally to EU and non EU manufacturers.
The proposed Regulation provides also for harmonised procedures for the authorisation of biocidal products, an element that is significantly underdeveloped in the current Directive. The provisions regarding mutual recognition of authorisations are reworked and clarified, in particular the resolution of disputes between Member States, or between Member States and applicants. This is expected to contribute to a smooth functioning of the upcoming authorisations of biocidal products.
Apart from the case of authorisations granted by the Member States, a centralised authorisation system is proposed. This will be available for products identified as low-risk - without having to go through a separate evaluation of the active substance first- and for products containing new active substances. The latter is expected to promote research and innovation in the biocides field.
The technical and scientific tasks relevant to this centralised system will be carried out by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). To this end, the proposal incorporates the necessary provisions governing the procedural and organisational details. In addition, ECHA will undertake the coordination of organisational and technical tasks for the evaluation of all applications for inclusion of active substances in Annex I (the Community positive list for active substances) which were until now attributed to the Commission Joint Research Centre.
The simplified procedures involving the current Annex IA and IB are repealed, as very little or no use of them has been made so far. The simplified procedure involving frame formulations - which has not yet been put into practice - is modified so as to allow, within a group of products belonging to the same frame formulation, the replacement of any non-active ingredient by other non-active ingredients. Currently, this is restricted to pigments, dyes, and perfumes. The Regulation will also incorporate rules governing the modalities and conditions to apply for modifications to authorisations that are already granted.
The rules on comparative assessment are also modified, as the current system does not seem sufficiently clear - for instance, it is rather problematic to apply comparative assessment during the review programme, where all existing substances are being evaluated. The proposed system comprises a first stage where active substances that even though overall acceptable still give rise to concern are listed in Annex I, but are also flagged for substitution. Biocidal products containing these active substances may be compared with others that are available on the market for the same or similar use pattern, and if they present significantly higher risk than those, their authorisations are refused or cancelled at Member State level.
In line with recent policy developments in REACH and the draft Regulation on the placing of plant protection products on the market, sharing of vertebrate animal studies in exchange for equitable compensation becomes mandatory. This is expected to save costs and animal lives by prohibiting the duplication of these studies.
The data protection system is significantly simplified, without cutting back on any acquired rights under the current system. It also grants protection to data submitted after the inclusion of the active substance in Annex I (mainly during product authorisation): these studies are not protected by the current legislation. The proposed data protection system also covers the case of newly generated studies that, contrary to the legislator's intention, do not benefit from data protection because certain Member States required their submission for the purposes of national authorisation during the transitional period (only data submitted for the first time in support of the first inclusion of the active substance are protected by the current system).
The data requirements of the Directive are modified. First, the principle of proposing and accepting adaptations to the data requirements is formalised and Member States have to inform and if possible assist the applicants with their adaptation requests. Second, the grounds for data waiving provided for in REACH will apply also for the proposed Regulation. Third, the core data requirements are modified and certain long-term animal studies are only required when necessary - these happen to be the most costly data requirements, in terms of lives of test animals and in terms of money.
The confidentiality provisions are slightly modified and aligned with those of REACH. This is to facilitate their application by ECHA, which would otherwise have to apply two different sets of confidentiality rules in its everyday operations.
For the purpose of facilitating the movement of biocidal products in the EU territory, the proposal provides for specific parallel trade rules: authorised biocidal products that have the same use, contain the same active substance and have essentially identical composition to products authorised in another Member State may be placed on the market of that other Member State via a simplified administrative procedure.
Finally, the proposal provides for a number of transitional measures to facilitate the transition from the system of the Directive to that of the draft Regulation, to introduce ECHA into the biocides regulatory framework, and to safeguard any acquired rights under the current system.
Article 95 of TEC.
The purpose of this Regulation is to facilitate the free movement of biocidal products within the Community. In order to ensure the functioning of the internal market with biocidal products, it is necessary to harmonise the conditions of their placing on the market at the level of the Community.
Individual measures of Member States stemming from the different levels of protection could result in obstacles to trade in biocidal products. This could compromise the achievement of objectives related to the internal market. The Community is, therefore, better placed to take action with regards to the conditions of placing on the market and use of biocidal products.
The subsidiarity principle was also closely considered when deciding on the distribution of tasks between the competent authorities of Member States, the Agency and the Commission, in particular with respect to the authorisation of biocidal products.
The proposal complies with the proportionality principle for the following reason(s).
The proposed Regulation aims to harmonise the conditions for placing biocidal products on the market but with respect to the majority of biocidal products it leaves it to the Member States to authorise these products in accordance with these conditions. The centralised procedure in which the Commission grants a Community authorisation will be restricted to two categories of biocidal products: products based on new active substances and low-risk biocidal products. For these categories of biocidal products centralisation is justified because of its positive impact on innovation and instant access to the entire Community market.
The proportionality principle was also respected with respect to the fees. The Commission will adopt another Regulation setting out a harmonised structure for fees but the decision on the amount of the fees will remain within the competence of the Member States.
Furthermore, the proposed Regulation does not go further than what is necessary with respect to its scope and the administrative burden on the industry as well as the competent authorities. In fact, the administrative and financial burden on the industry and the competent authorities will be reduced compared to Directive 98/8/EC because of the following reasons:
– the provision of strict deadlines for each procedural step will increase the predictability and facilitate the access of biocidal products to the market;
– the centralised authorisation will save time and costs for both the industry and competent authorities;
– the possibility of a mutual recognition in parallel will provide for a closer cooperation among the Member States concerning the evaluation of a biocidal product while saving financial and human resources;
– the mandatory data sharing with respect to vertebrate animal data will save the costs for the industry and avoid repeated evaluating of the same data by the competent authorities.
Proposed instruments: Regulation.
Other means would not be adequate for the following reason(s).
The current regulatory framework for the placing on the market of biocidal products is Directive 98/8/EC. The Commission - in line with recent proposals concerning the plant protection products legislation and general chemicals legislation (the REACH Regulation and the Regulation on classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures) - is proposing to replace that Directive with a Regulation. This will eliminate the need for a transitional period and will advance the implementation of urgently needed provisions by approximately two years. A Regulation will also ensure the uniform application of the new instrument throughout the EU, in particular the procedures and deadlines for authorisation of biocidal products and mutual recognition of those authorisations. Differences in the transposition of measures and/or the implementation would have very serious consequences for the functioning of the internal market in biocidal products.
The choice of the legal instrument will also reduce the administrative burden and ensure the clarity for the industry.
The proposal will have budgetary implications as there is a need to support the European Chemicals Agency (the Agency) in taking up the additional tasks related to the assessment and inclusion of active substances used in biocidal products in Annex I of the Regulation and the centralised authorisation of certain biocidal products. The Agency will receive specific fees from applicants for certain of these activities as well as an annual fee on products centrally authorised by the Community. The revenue from the fees will have to be supplemented by a subsidy from the Community. It is, however, expected that this support from the Community will be limited in time as the activities of the Agency should be self-funding through fee revenues after a number of years. Detailed rules on the budget of the Agency and its implementation are already laid down in REACH Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006. These rules shall apply accordingly in the context of this Regulation.
The proposal provides for simplification of legislation, simplification of administrative procedures for public authorities (EU or national), and for private parties.
Apart from the obvious economy of dispensing with transposition measures, transposition periods and transposition conformity controls that is achieved by replacing the current Directive with a Regulation, the proposal clarifies in much greater detail than in the present text the procedures to be followed for granting authorisations by the Member States and the procedures for mutual recognition of those authorisations.
In particular, the acceptable grounds for opposing mutual recognition are made clear and procedural steps are provided for the resolution of disputes.
In addition, the grounds for waiving data requirements are set out in more detail, enhancing legal certainty for the applicants. In the current system, while the principle of waiving data requirements is recognised, little is provided as conditions for implementing the principle. As a result, Member States are sometimes reluctant to allow that certain studies listed in the core data set need not be submitted by the applicant as the safety of a substance is sufficiently established by other available information.
The data protection provisions are simplified and better aligned with the objectives of the Community policy (recovery of costs - protection for newly generated data).
Lastly, the establishment of a centralised system for the authorisation of certain products is an obvious simplification as the products concerned will not need individual authorisation in all or some of the 27 Member States.
The Member States competent authorities will have a more harmonised framework for granting authorisations (e.g. harmonised content of an authorisation document). They will also have specific deadlines and procedures for all the tasks related to authorisation and mutual recognition.
With the handling of the procedure for the evaluation of active substances by ECHA there will be greater transparency, co-ordination and efficiency of the process compared to the current system. This will among others avoid the same active substance being evaluated in parallel by two different Member States.
The proposal foresees that Member States will have a common structure on the basis of which they can rationally develop their fees' systems.
Enterprises supporting the placing on the market of a low-risk product or a product containing a new active substance will be able to obtain only one (Community) authorisation valid for the whole EU territory. Consequently, the Member States will not need to carry out an evaluation as those products will be approved via centralised authorisations. There will also be no need for mutual recognition or multiple provisional authorisation procedures for these products, as those will be handled at Community level by ECHA.
Enterprises will now have to consult only one legal text that applies in the EU instead of 27 national transposition instruments.
Authorisation and mutual recognition procedures are better defined and predictable and specific deadlines are added.
The legal certainty is increased with regard to the protection afforded to studies submitted in support of an application.
The proposal is included in the Commission's rolling programme for up-date and simplification of the acquis communautaire and its Work and Legislative Programme under the reference COM(2007) 640.
The adoption of the proposal will lead to the repeal of existing legislation, in particular Directive 98/8/EC.
The proposal includes a review clause.
The proposal does not involve recasting.
The proposed act concerns an EEA matter and should therefore extend to the European Economic Area.