G/TBT/W/485  
 
18 April 2018  
(18-2405) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 EUROPEAN UNION — REVISED PROPOSAL FOR  THE CATEGORIZATION O F COMPOUNDS 
AS ENDOCRINE DISRUPT ORS OF 19 F EBRUARY 2013 BY DG E NVIRONMENT  
STATEMENT BY THE EUR OPEAN UNION TO THE C OMMITTEE ON TECHNICA L BARRIERS TO TRADE  
21 AND 22 MARCH 2018  
The following communication, dated 16 April 2018, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the European Union .  
 
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1.  The European Union would like to thank the WTO Members  for their interest in the ongoing 
work in the EU on def ining criteria to identify endocrine disruptors  both for plant protection 
products and biocides.  
2.  The European Union is  aware of the concerns of WTO Members  in relation to the draft criteria 
for the identification of endocrine disruptors presented by the European Commission  in June 2016, 
in particular for plant protection products . The mandate given to the Commission in this respect 
was to set the criteria  for the identification of endocrine disruptors  via the implementation of the 
plant protection  legislati on. Therefore, the Commission had no  mandate to change the general 
approach for endocrine disruptors of the legislation  for these products, which had previously been  
decided in 2009  by the EU co-legislators  (the European Parliament and the Council) . At tha t time, 
the proposal of the pesticides regulation was notified to the WTO.  
3.  In June 2016, the Commission  proposed to amend the alr eady existing derogation for 
endocrine disruptors  under the p lant protection products  legislation , taking into account current 
technical and scientific knowledge . For transparency reasons and to facilitate the decision -making 
process, in December 2016 , the plant protection products  proposal  was split into two acts: one 
text containing the scientific criteria for identification of endocrine disruptors and a  second  one 
including  the technical amendment to the clause on negligible exposure  which was put on hold . 
Since there was  no substantial change in the content of the proposals , there was no need to re -
notify the draft acts  to the WTO . 
4.  On 4 October 2017, the European Parliament objected  to the act including the scientific criteria 
to identify endocrine disruptors in the field of plant protection products, which had been voted by 
Member States with qualif ied majority  on the 4 July 2017 .  
5.  On 13 December 2017, the EU Member States endorsed a new version of the draft Regulation 
setting scientific criteria for identification of endocrine disruptors for plant protection products, 
which takes into account the vi ews of the European Parliament. The criteria endorsed do not differ 
significantly from those notified to the WTO in 2016. The endorsed draft criteria have been sent to 
the co -legislators for scrutiny. They will be eventually adopted by the Commission if th ere are no 
objections from the Council or the European Parliament by the 9 April 2018.  
6.  As regards the act including the technical amendment to the clause on negligible exposure  for 
plant protection products, the Commission will  resume discussions onc e the draft criteria have 
been adopted.  
7.  The delegated act including the criteria to identify endocrine disruptors for b iocides  was 
adopted by the Commission on 4 Se ptember 2017 a nd, following the completion of the scrutiny G/TBT/W/485  
 
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  period of co -legislators, Commission D elegated Regulation (EU) 2017/2100 was published on 
17 November 2017. The criteria entered into force on 7 December 2017 and will be applicable 
from 7  June 2018, including for substances under evaluation at that time.  
8.  The EU reiterates its commitment to a ct in full transparency and will keep Members duly 
informed about further developments.  
 
 
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