Overview Report on a Series of Audits Carried Out in Member States from 2012 to 2014 in Order to Evaluate Controls of Plant Protection Products

Download or read book Overview Report on a Series of Audits Carried Out in Member States from 2012 to 2014 in Order to Evaluate Controls of Plant Protection Products written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report provides an overview of the outcome of a series of audits carried out by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) in 19 Member States (MSs) of the European Union (EU) between January 2012 and June 2014. This was the fourth series of FVO audits in this area. The objective of the audits was to evaluate the control systems in place for pesticides, in particular, the implementation of requirements for the authorisation of plant protection products (PPPs) and official controls on the marketing and use of PPPs under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 and Directive 2009/128/EC, and the implementation of the requirements for official controls of PPPs at growers, as specified in Regulation (EC) No 882/2004.^While there were systems and procedures for the authorisation of PPPs in place in all Member States, related shortcomings were identified in two areas: (a) Delays with re-authorisations of PPPs under Directive 91/414/EEC, and with mutual recognitions under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009: Many authorised PPP had not been evaluated to EU standards, more than 15 years after the principles for evaluation had been established. Similarly, delays and problems with cooperation between Member States were identified for the zonal authorisation system under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009. This highlights the difficulty of MSs to implement authorisation systems based on EU legislation; (b) Emergency authorisations of PPPs under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009: The report identifies problems with misuse of emergency authorisations for minor uses of PPPs, but also for other use extensions of approved PPPs.^In addition, emergency authorisations for the same products have been granted for consecutive years, thus undermining the effectiveness of the strict criteria for regular authorisations established by EU legislation. Systems were in place for official controls on the marketing and use of PPPs. One common weakness in controls at both market and user level, was the coverage of operators. With regard to official controls on the marketing of PPPs, there were further weaknesses related to unsatisfactory labelling checks and unsatisfactory quality controls of pesticides. As a consequence, there was insufficient assurance that counterfeit and illegal pesticides would be detected. In general, official controls on the use of PPPs were more effective than controls on the marketing of PPPs.^In most of the MSs visited, all relevant aspects were covered during inspections and comprehensive checks of records kept by professional users were taking place, which provided guarantees that PPPs are applied in accordance with the conditions specified on the labels. Weaknesses were identified with regard to prioritisation of official controls. Co-ordination and co-operation between and, in some cases, within CAs was considered to be weak. Initial measures were adequately put into place for the implementation of Directive 2009/128/EC, in particular, training and certification of professional users, safe handling and storage of PPPs, their containers and remnants, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and application equipment. This is a step forward to ensure the sustainable use of pesticides. Good practices were found with regard to systems for official controls as a whole, or certain aspects. These are described in the relevant chapters of the report.