Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251(2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on plant protection products
Date: 2009-01-09
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU action, EU statistics, data collection, marketing standard, pharmaceutical product, plant health product, statistics

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 9.1.2009 
COM(2008) 899 final 

2006/0258 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251(2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on plant protection products 

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   EN 

 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
2006/0258 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251(2) of the EC Treaty 

concerning the 

common position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council concerning statistics on plant protection products 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(document COM(2006) 778 final — 2006/0258 (COD)  

11 December 2006. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

11 July 2007. 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

12 March 2008. 

Date of adoption of the common position: 

20 November 2008. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The  proposed  Regulation  creates  a  legal  framework  and  defines  harmonised  rules  for  the 
collection  and  dissemination  of  statistics  on  the  sale  and  use  of  plant  protection  products. 
In particular, it defines rules for:  

•  data collection frequency (annually for sales — every 5 years for use); 

•  data collection methods, with considerable flexibility given to the Member States; 

•  the  format  and  periodicity  of  reporting  obligations,  which  can  be  specified  in 

detail by the Commission through the comitology procedure. 

This  Regulation  concerning  statistics  on  plant  protection  products  is  part  of  a  legislative 
package  including  the  proposal  for  a  Directive  of  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council 
establishing  a  framework  for  Community  action  to  achieve  a  sustainable  use  of  pesticides 
(COM(2006) 373 final) and the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of 
the Council concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (COM(2006) 
388 final), which are also being examined under the co-decision procedure (AGRI Council). 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

3.1 

General comments 

The  European  Parliament  gave  its  opinion  at  first  reading  on  12  March  2008.  The 

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Commission accepted in full, in part or in principle 12 of the 26 amendments adopted by the 
European Parliament in its first reading. Five of these 12 amendments are already reflected, at 
least in part, in the common position. 

The  Commission  accepted  amendments,  either  fully  or  in  principle  or  in  part,  which  would 
clarify and improve upon the Commission proposal. These include modifications explaining 
the  quality  criteria  for  official  statistics  and  the  scope  of  confidentiality,  giving  a  better 
description of the objectives of the proposal, and creating a more explicit link with the other 
legislative proposals for the pesticide thematic strategy, in particular with the new Regulation 
for  the  placing  of  plant  protection  products  on  the  market,  concerning  the  application  of 
reporting  obligations  and  the  revision  of  the  list  of  products.  The  Commission  expressed  a 
reserved position with regard to the extension of the scope to biocides. 

The Commission mainly rejected amendments considered to be either redundant or in conflict 
with the general provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 on Community statistics1 
and the rules of the European Statistical System or to be technically unfeasible, premature or 
needlessly burdensome from an administrative viewpoint and for respondents. 

The Commission considers that the common position does not alter the approach or aims of 
the proposal and can thus support it as it stands. 

3.2. 

Detailed comments 

3.2.1.  Parliamentary amendments accepted by the Commission and incorporated in full, in 

part or in principle in the common position 

Amendments 5, 10, 13, 18, and 32 have been incorporated, with a slightly different wording, 
in  the  common  position.  Amendment  5,  fully  accepted  by  the  Commission,  makes  more 
explicit  the  objectives  of  the  Regulation  and  has  been  fully  incorporated  in  the  Council’s 
common  position.  The  link  established  with  the  Framework  Directive  on  sustainable  use  of 
pesticides by amendment 10, which clarifies the objectives of the proposal, was maintained by 
the Council, but strictly limited to Article 14 of the Directive. The three indents of amendment 
10, including the last one concerning records of substance flows, which was not acceptable to 
the  Commission,  were  rejected  by  the  Council.  Amendment  13,  fully  accepted  by  the 
Commission,  links  the  proposal  to  the  proposed  Regulation  concerning  the  placing  of  plant 
protection  products  on  the  market,  with  a  clear  reference  to  the  reporting  obligations  it 
contains. This amendment was kept almost unchanged in the common position. Amendment 
18  referring  to  the  protection  of  data  confidentiality  and  the  limitation  of  the  use  of  data  to 
statistical purposes was acceptable in principle to the Commission and has been incorporated 
with  slight  changes  in  the  common  position.  Amendment  32  concerning  the  content  of  the 
report from the Commission to the Parliament, which was fully accepted by the Commission, 
was accepted in essence by the Council. 

3.2.2.  Parliamentary amendments rejected by the Commission but incorporated in full, in 

part or in principle in the common position 

None. 

1 

OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1. Regulation as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1882/2003 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 284, 31.10.2003, p. 1). 

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3.2.3.  Parliamentary  amendments  accepted  in  full,  in  part  or  in  principle  by  the 

Commission but not incorporated in the common position 

Amendments  3,  6,  11,  12,  19,  30,  and  33  were  accepted  in  part  or  in  principle  by  the 
Commission, but not incorporated. The three amendments 6, 11, and 33 related at least partly 
to the inclusion of biocidal products in the scope of the proposal and the subsequent renaming 
of plant protection products as pesticides. The Commission accepted the extension subject to 
a realistic programme being agreed with Parliament. This extension was not accepted by the 
Council.  Amendments  3  and  30  dealing  with  standards  for  official  statistics  were  both 
rejected  by  the  Council,  which  introduced  instead  a  new  recital  (8(a))  and  article  (3(a)) 
concerning  this  issue.  Amendment  12,  aiming  to  reinforce  the  link  with  the  Regulation 
concerning  the  placing  on  the  market  of  plant  protection  products,  was  considered 
burdensome and rejected by the Council. Amendment 19, calling for regular revision by the 
Commission of the list of substances included in Annex III, was not accepted by the Council, 
which proposed a more flexible approach in a new Article 4(2)(a). 

3.2.4.  Parliamentary  amendments  rejected  by  the  Commission  and  the  Council  and  not 

incorporated in the common position 

Amendments 1, 7, 8, 21, 22, 26, and 34 aimed to extend the scope of the Regulation to the 
production and import-export sectors, to non-agricultural uses and to biocides. Amendments 
14,  16,  25,  28  and  31  were  considered  by  both  the  Commission  and  the  Council  to  be  in 
conflict  with  the  rules  of  the  European  Statistical  System.  Amendments 15  and  23  creating 
specific reporting obligations for producers and those responsible for placing plant protection 
products on the market were considered to overlap with similar obligations in the Placing on 
the Market Regulation. These amendments were not included in the common position. 

Concerning the extension of the scope of the Regulation to biocidal products as proposed by 
Parliament, the Commission was aware of the difficulty in covering these products at the time 
and  is  of  the  opinion  that  a  realistic  programme  for  such  an  extension  should  be  agreed 
without any precise deadline fixed in the Regulation. The  possibility to extend the scope of 
the Regulation depends very much on the progress of the review programme for biocides, for 
which no timetable has yet been defined. The Commission fully recognises the importance of 
biocidal products and has already started a specific assessment of their impact in the thematic 
strategy  on  the  sustainable  use  of  pesticides.  According  to  the  results  of  this  impact 
assessment, specific measures should be recommended to measure the importance of the use 
of these products. However, the Commission cannot presume at this stage whether a specific 
statistical  approach  will  be  recommended  or  if  standard  reporting  measures  will  suffice. 
Therefore, the question of biocides should be dissociated from the question of plant protection 
products. 

3.2.5.  Changes made by the Council to the Proposal 

The Council proposed the following main changes to the Commission proposal: 

Quality  assessment:  The  Council  has  inserted  a  new  Article  3a  on  quality  assessment.  
Quality  assessment  dimensions  have  already  been  included  in  other  basic  acts  concerning 

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statistics2. The Commission can support this clarification of the rules for quality assessment. 

Implementation measures: The Article introduced by the Council on quality assessment is 
quite specific. Therefore the reference to the comitology procedure for the quality reports and 
reporting  measures  has  been  deleted.  The  text  on  the  adoption  by  the  Commission  of  the 
definition  of  the  ‘area  treated’  has  been  moved  from  Annex  II  to  Article  4.  The  text  on  the 
possibility for the Commission to amend the harmonised classification has been moved from 
Annex  III  to  Article  4,  and  the  solution  proposed  by  the  Council  is  more  flexible  than  the 
regular  revision  proposed  by  the  Parliament  (amendment  19).  The  Commission  can  support 
this clarification and simplification concerning implementing measures. 

Coverage of the collection of data on use: The Council has opted to give a wide margin of 
discretion  to  the  Member  States  to  select  the  crops  to  be  covered,  and  has  defined  new 
thresholds for the collection of data on the use of plant protection products in Annex II. The 
combination of requirements concerning the representativity of the crops cultivated and of the 
substances  used  with  a  link  to  the  national  action  plans  carried  out  by  the  Member  States 
under the thematic strategy on the sustainable use of pesticides may offer sufficient guaranties 
that  coverage  will  be  sufficient  and  will  allow  good  comparisons  of  the  results  between 
Member  States.  Moreover,  in  the  statement  of  its  reasons,  the  Council  considers  that  the 
evaluation  of  the  Regulation  results  after  five  years  will  allow  the  crop  selection  to  be 
modified if necessary. The Commission can thus support this compromise. 

New definitions: The definitions in Article 2 have been slightly modified and new definitions 
have been added to ensure more coherence with other related basic acts concerning statistics. 
The Commission agrees with these changes. 

Other changes: In addition, the Council has removed from the recitals all the references to 
the production and distribution of plant protection products and to a possible extension of the 
scope  to  biocides.  The  recitals  on  subsidiarity  and  proportionality  as  well  as  on  the 
comitology procedure have been re-drafted and a specific recital on the transmission of data 
subject  to  confidentiality  has  been  added.  These  changes  are  consistent  with  the  overall 
position  of  the  Commission  with  regard  to  the  scope  of  the  Regulation,  so  the  Commission 
can agree with these changes. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The changes introduced by the Council’s common position are acceptable to the Commission 
as  they  lead  to  a  realistic  compromise  between,  on  the  one  hand,  the  need  for  reliable  and 
comparable  data  to  measure  progress  towards  a  more  sustainable  use  of  pesticides  and  the 
reduction  of  risks  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  difficulty  for  most  of  the  Member  States  to 
introduce a new data collection system and collect sufficiently detailed and comparable data 
for the needs of this Regulation.  

In  general,  the  Council’s  changes  build  upon  the  Commission’s  proposal  and  therefore  the 
Commission can accept the common position. 

2 

Regulation  (EC)  No  453/2008  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  23  April  2008  on 
quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies (OJ L145, 4.6.2008, p. 234). 

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