Regulation of plant protection products in Europe under the authorisation Directive 91/414/EEC
Council Directive 91/414/EEC harmonises the regulation of plant protection products in the European Community (EC). This is achieved by establishing agreed criteria for considering the safety of active substances as well as the safety and effectiveness of the products in which they may be used. The Directive sets out a two-stage assessment system:
- harmonising the process for considering the safety of active substances at an EC level, and once safety of the active substance has been established,
- allowing product authorisations to be considered at a national level using the established harmonised criteria.
The key points of the Directive are that it provides:
- for the establishment of a positive list of active substances (which forms ‘Annex I’ of the Directive) that have been shown to be without unacceptable risk to people or the environment;
- a mechanism for adding active substances to Annex I either as existing active substances are reviewed (under the European Commission Review Programme) or new ones authorised;
- for a harmonised authorisation process for the marketing and use of plant protection products by Member States only after an active substance is included in Annex I, except where transitional arrangements apply. A re-registration process operates for products already on the market containing a newly Annex I included active substance.
CRD works to ensure the effective and efficient operation of the Directive both at a national and an EC level.
Find out more
- The Directive (91/414/EEC) – its content and Annexes
- Commission database on active substances considered under Directive 91/414/EEC
- The overall EC decision making process – how it operates and who else is involved
- UK legislation implementing the directive (Plant Protection Products Regulations (PPPR))
- The application and processing of new active substance applications
- The EC review programme for existing active substances
- EC News - Information about the European Commission meetings, decisions on active substances, essential uses, scope, progress of the review of existing active substances, guidance documents, replacement legislation
- Future developments:
The EC Thematic Strategy for Pesticides includes proposals for:
- replacing council Directive 91/414/EEC with a Regulation concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market;
- a Directive relating to the sustainable use of pesticides;
- a Regulation on pesticide statistics.
Further Information
EC Legislation index page on Europa website, (search by document number, selecting either 'natural number' for single pieces of legislation or 'consolidated text' for those which have been amended.
Link to list of active substances on Annex I (prepared by CRD).