WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/N/EEC/239 
23 March 2004 
 (04-1290) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION  
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved: 
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission 
3. Products covered (provide tariff item numbe r(s) as specified in national schedules 
deposited with the WTO; ICS numbers should be provided in addition, where 
applicable):  Thirteen chemical substances liste d in Annex I or II of the Stockholm 
Convention or in Annex I or II of the 19 98 Protocol to the 1979 Convention on Long-Range 
Trans-boundary Air Pollution on persiste nt organic pollutants ICS 65.100. 
4. Regions or countries likely to be affected , to the extent relevant or practicable:  
Member States of the European Communiti es (EEC) and third countries exporting the 
products concerned to the EEC. 
5. Title, language and number of pages of the notified document:   COM(2003) 333 final 
"Commission proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on 
persistent organic pollutants and amending Directives 79/117/ EEC and 96/59/EC" (available 
in all EC languages, 36 pages)  
6. Description of content:  The proposed Regulation would implement the main control 
provisions of the Stockholm Convention and the UNECE Protocol that are not already 
covered by the Community legisl ation.  These control measures include prohibition of the 
production, use and placing on the market of th e listed substances.  The proposed Regulation 
would not make use of the possibility offered by  the international agreements of continuing 
the production and use of some of the listed subs tances for limited uses .  The draft Regulation 
also contains control provisions on stockpile s and waste and provisions on setting up release 
inventories and on the development and implem entation of the national action plans on POPs 
which are unintentional by-products.  In add ition, the proposal contains certain general 
obligations based on the provisions of the Conv ention and the Protocol, such as information 
exchange, technical assistance, and reporting.  After a decision on listing of a substance is 
made under either of the two internationa l legally binding instruments on POPs, the 
Regulation would be amended, as appropriate,  by using a regulatory committee procedure. 
The European Parliament legi slative resolution on the proposal contains 67 amendments.  
The main changes include the change of the le gal basis, addition of a general provision on 
control measures concerning new and existing chemicals exhibiting POP characteristics, 
tightening of the provisions on HCH / lindane, allo wing limited use of DDT as a site-limited, 
closed-system intermediate in the production of  dicofol and modification of the provisions on 
treatment of waste cont aining POP substances. 
7. Objective and rationale:  [ X ] food safety, [   ] animal health, [   ] plant protection, 
[  ] protect humans from animal/plant pest or disease,  [   ]  protect territory from other 
damage from pests G/SPS/N/EEC/239 
Page 2  
 
 8. International standard, guideline or recommendation:  
[   ] Codex Alimentarius Commission, [   ] World Organization for Animal Health 
(OIE), [   ] International Plant Protection Convention, [ X ] None  
If an international standard, guideline or recommendation exists, give the appropriate 
reference and briefly identify deviations:   In absence of a CODEX standard, and seeking to 
harmonize these measures on as wi de a basis as possible, this pr oposal implements, as far as 
this is possible, the provisions of: 
- The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants  (http://www.pops.int/documents/convtext/convtext_en.pdf
) 
and the 
- 1998 Protocol to the 1979 Conventi on on Long-Range Trans-boundary Air 
 Pollution on persistent organic pollutants 
 (http://www.unece.org/env/1rta p/full%20text/1998.POPs.e.pdf) 
The Stockholm Convention is open for ratif ication to all WTO Members.  The 1998 
Protocol is open for ratification by all pa rties to the Convention on Long-Range Trans-
boundary Air Pollution. 
Deviations from the above are indicated in No.6 
9. Relevant documents and language(s) in which these are available:   
1. Document COM(2003) 333 Final : 
 Commission proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the 
Council on persistent organic pollutants and amending Directives 79/117/EEC and 
96/59/EC, is available from Eur Lex at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/index.html  
under "Legislation in preparation" or directly from: 
 English:  http://europa.eu.int/e ur-lex/en/com/pdf/2003/com2003_0333en01.pdf  
 French:  http://europa.eu.int/eu r-lex/fr/com/pdf/2003/com2003_0333fr01.pdf  
 Spanish: http://europa.eu.int/c omm/environment/pops/index_en.htm  
2. Document A5-0017/2004  
 European Parliament legisl ative resolution on the proposal for a Regulation of the 
European Parliament and of the Counc il on persistent organic pollutants and 
amending Directives 79/117/EEC and 96/ 59/EC (available in all Community 
languages).   
 This document is available from http:// www.europarl.eu.int/pl enary/default_es.htm  
 Using as document identification the code "A5-0017/2004" 
 Or directly from  http://www2.europarl.eu.i nt/omk/sipade2?PUBREF=-
//EP//TEXT+TEXT+REPORT+A5- 2004-0017+0+NOT+XML+VO//EN  
3. The Stockholm Convention on Pe rsistent Organic Pollutants 
 (http://www.pops.int/docum ents/convtext/convext_en.pdf ) 
4. The UN ECE Protocol on Pe rsistent Organic Pollutants 
 (http://www.unece.org/env/Irt ap/full%20text/1998.POPs.e.pdf ) 
10. Proposed date of adoption:   First half of 2004 
11. Proposed date of entry into force:   20 days after publication in  the Official Journal of the 
European Union  G/SPS/N/EEC/239 
 Page 3 
 
 
 12. Final date for comments:  Sixty (60) days after th e date of notification 
Agency or authority designated to handle comments:  [ X ] EC notification authority, 
[   ] National enquiry point, or address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of 
other body:    
13. Texts available from:  [   ] National notifica tion authority, [ X ] EC enquiry point, or 
address, fax number and E-mail address (if available) of other body:  
The notified documents and other texts rela ted to them can be downloaded from: 
http://europa.eu.int/pr elex/detail_dossier_re al.cfm?CL=en&DosId=183471