The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted a report drawn up by Åsa WESTLUND (PES, SE), and made some amendments to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 98/8/EC concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market, as regards the implementing powers conferred to the Commission.
The Committee felt that the current comitology procedure regarding decisions on, particularly, release of active substances or biocidal products in the area of research and development should be changed into a regulatory procedure with scrutiny. Accordingly, it stated that common conditions for the application of Article 17, in particular the maximum quantities of active substances or biocidal products that may be released during experiments, and the minimum data to be submitted, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.
It also considered that the application of the comitology procedure leads to changes of the Annexes of the Directive. The regulatory procedure with scrutiny should therefore be introduced. Accordingly, with regard to adaptation to technical progress, a clause was inserted stating that the amendments necessary for adapting Annexes IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB, IVA and IVB as well as the descriptions of the product-types in Annex V to technical progress, and for specifying data requirements for each of these product types, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.
Lastly, Members felt that the references to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny should be clear and not entail any curtailing of time limits compared to the standard time limits of the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.