The Queen v Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Secretary of State for the Environment, ex parte Monsanto plc, intervener: I Pi Ci SpA.
Date: 2001-05-03
30 In that connection, it should be borne in mind that the first subparagraph of Article 8(1) of Directive 91/414 provides:
[B]y way of derogation from Article 4, a Member State may, to enable a gradual assessment to be made of the properties of new active substances and to make it easier for new preparations to be made available for use in agriculture, authorise, for a provisional period not exceeding three years, the placing on the market of plant protection products containing an active substance not listed in Annex I and not yet available on the market two years after notification of this Directive, provided that:
(a) following application of Article 6(2) and (3) it is found that the dossier on the active substance satisfies the requirements of Annexes II and III in relation to the projected uses;
(b) the Member State establishes that the active substance can satisfy the requirements of Article 5(1) and that the plant protection product may be expected to satisfy the requirements of Article 4(1)(b) to (f).
32 It is apparent therefore that, unlike the first subparagraph of Article 8(1) of Directive 91/414, the first subparagraph of Article 8(2) does not specify the requirements which must be satisfied in order to grant an authorisation to place on the market. However, it does state that such authorisation is to be issued without prejudice to Article 8(3) of Directive 91/414.
39 In reality, the expression before such review has taken place which appears in Article 8(3) of Directive 91/414 must be understood, as the United Kingdom Government has, in substance, argued, as meaning that it is against the yardstick of the requirements laid down in Article 4(1)(b)(i) to (v), and (c) to (f), of that directive that the Member States must decide whether to proceed to a review of plant protection products.
43 Thus, during the transitional period mentioned in Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414, Member States are to continue to apply their scheme or their practice for placing on the market, in their territory, plant protection products containing an active substance not listed in Annex I to the directive that were already on the market two years after notification of that directive.
44 Moreover, such a solution corresponds to that adopted in Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market (OJ 1998 L 123, p. 1), formerly known, as mentioned in the second recital in the preamble to that directive, as non-agricultural pesticides. Directive 98/8 contains, in relation to the placing of products on the market, provisions which bear a large number of similarities to those of Directive 91/414, in particular so far as concerns the principle of establishing a Community list of permitted active substances, a Community procedure for assessing whether an active substance can be entered in the Community list and the regular review of active substances on such a list. That directive provides, in Article 16, that a Member State may, for a transitional period of 10 years, continue to apply its current system or practice for placing biocidal products on the market. It may, in particular, authorise, in accordance with its current national rules, the placing on the market in its territory of a biocidal product containing active substances not listed in Annex I or I A to Directive 98/8 for that product type. Such active substances must be on the market within 24 months at most from the entry into force of Directive 98/8 as active substances of a biocidal product for purposes other than scientific research and development or process-orientated research and development.