Regulation 2008/689 - Export and import of dangerous chemicals - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 204/1

Regulation (EC) No 304/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 concerning the export and import of dangerous chemicals (3) implemented the Rotterdam Convention on the prior informed consent procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides in international trade (4), hereinafter ‘the Convention’, which entered into force on 24 February 2004, and replaced Council Regulation (EEC) No 2455/92 of 23 July 1992 concerning the export and import of certain dangerous chemicals (5).

In its judgment of 10 January 2006 in Case C-178/03 (Commission v Parliament and Council) (6), the Court of Justice of the European Communities annulled Regulation (EC) No 304/2003 as it was based solely on Article 175(1) of the Treaty, ruling that both Articles 133 and 175(1) were the appropriate legal bases. However the Court also ruled that the effects of the Regulation were to be maintained until the adoption, within a reasonable period, of a new Regulation founded on appropriate legal bases. That also implies that obligations that were already fulfilled under Regulation (EC) No 304/2003 do not need to be accomplished again.

In accordance with Regulation (EC) No 304/2003, the Commission has submitted a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the operation of Regulation (EC) No 304/2003 from 2003 to 2005. Overall the procedures have worked well. However, the report identifies a number of technical amendments that appear to be necessary. It is therefore appropriate to incorporate those elements in this Regulation.

The Convention allows Parties the right to take action that is more stringently protective of human health and the environment than that called for in the Convention, provided that such action is consistent with the provisions of the Convention and is in accordance with international law. It is necessary and appropriate, in order not to weaken the level of protection afforded to the environment and to the general public of importing countries under Regulation (EEC) No 2455/92, to go further than the provisions of the Convention in certain respects.

As regards the participation of the Community in the Convention, it is essential to have a single contact point for Community interaction with the Secretariat and other Parties to the Convention as well as with other countries. The Commission should act as that contact point.

Exports of dangerous chemicals that are banned or severely restricted within the Community should continue to be subject to a common export notification procedure. Accordingly, dangerous chemicals, whether in the form of substances on their own or in preparations or in articles, which have been banned or severely restricted by the Community as plant protection products, as other forms of pesticides, or as industrial chemicals for use by professional users or by the public, should be subject to export notification rules similar to those applicable to such chemicals when they are banned or severely restricted within either or both of the use categories laid down in the Convention, namely as pesticides or chemicals for...