CELEX: 51985PC0217
Language: en
Date: 1985-05-15
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE AMENDING DIRECTIVE 73/404/EEC ON THE APPROXIMATION OF THE LAWS OF THE MEMBER STATES RELATING TO DETERGENTS

No C 139/4                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                   7.6. 85
               Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 73/404/EEC on the approximation of the
                                       laws of the Member States relating to detergents
                                                       COM(85)     217final
                                 (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 22 May 1985)
                                                         (85/C 139/04)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            Whereas, although substitutes are already being used in
                                                                    dish-washing machine products in certain regions of the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               Community, no suitable substitution products have yet
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100                   been found for the metal-working industry, despite
thereof,                                                            intensive efforts;
                                                                    Whereas, in view of the relatively small quantities of
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                    surface-active substances involved, which, however, are
                                                                    of considerable economic significance, it is desirable to
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia-                give Member States the possibility of allowing
ment,                                                               exemptions until 31 December 1990, where their national
                                                                    situations so require,
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,                                                   HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Whereas Article 2a of Council Directive 73/404/EEC        (*),                                Article 1
as amended by Directive 82/242/EEC (2), provides           for
                                                                    Article 2a (1) of Directive 73/404/EEC           is hereby
certain exemptions until 31 March 1986 from                the
                                                                    replaced by the following:
requirement of a minimum biodegradability level for        the
surfactants used in detergents;                                          '1.    Member States may, until 31 December 1990,
                                                                         exempt the following products from the require-
Whereas the substances in question are non-ionic                         ments of the first paragraph of Article 2:
surfactants which do not comply with the biodegrad-                      (a) low-foaming addition products of alkene oxides
ability limits laid down in Directive 73/404/EEC and are                      and substances such as alcohols, alkylphenols,
used for specific purposes on account of technical                            glycols, polyols, fatty acids, amides or amines,
problems and to avoid other undesirable effects on                           where used in dish-washing products;
health and the environment;                                              (b) alkali-resistant terminally blocked alkyl and
                                                                              alkyl-aryl polyglycol ethers and substances of
Whereas research on the biodegradability of these sub-                        the type referred to in point (a), where used in
stances has progressed since the adoption of Directive                        cleaning agents for the food, beverage and
82/242/EEC; whereas, however, on account of the wide                          metal-working industries.'
disparities that exist between Member States as regards
inter alia water properties, eating habits and machine                                        Article 2
design, the results of that research have not made it
possible to dispense with all the above-mentioned                   Member States shall forthwith inform the Commission of
exemptions;                                                         any measures they take in order to implement this
                                                                    Directive.
                                                                                              Article 3
(') OJ No L 347, 17. 12. 1973, p. 51.
(2) OJ No L 109, 22. 4. 1982, p. 1.                                 This Directive is addressed to the Member States.