Commission Regulation (EC) No 162/2007
of 19 February 2007
amending Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to fertilisers for the purposes of adapting Annexes I and IV thereto to technical progress
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 2003 relating to fertilisers , and in particular Article 31(3) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Section E of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 lists those types of inorganic micronutrient fertilisers which may be designated ‘EC fertiliser’ in accordance with Article 3 of that Regulation. The list includes a number of fertilisers in which the micronutrient is chemically combined with a chelating agent. A list of authorised chelating agents is provided in table E.3.1 of that Annex.
(2)
The specification of the fertiliser type in which the chelated micronutrient is iron allows the use of either a single authorised chelating agent, or of a mixture of them, provided that chelated fraction can be quantified by the method described in European Standard EN 13366, and the individual chelating agents in the mixture can be separately identified and quantified by EN 13368.
(3)
The provisions for iron micronutrient fertiliser containing chelated iron should be updated in three respects. First, to make clear that at least 50 % of the water-soluble iron must be chelated by the authorised chelating agents. Second, to specify that an authorised chelating agent can be mentioned on the fertiliser type designation only if it chelates at least 1 % of the water-soluble iron. Third, to generalise the reference to European Standards in order to allow the use of additional European Standards.
(4)
The chemical names of the authorised chelating agents listed in section E.3.1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 are intended to distinguish between different isomers of the same substance in a descriptive way. As there are several different nomenclatures in common use in the scientific community for those substances, there is a risk of misidentification. In order to ensure unambiguous identification of the chelating agents, the corresponding CAS numbers (Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society), which uniquely identify the different isomers of the chelating agents, should be provided for each entry of that Annex. It is therefore appropriate to delete three chelating agents isomers which cannot be unambiguously identified by a CAS number.
(5)
A more consistent nomenclature should be used for the chelating agents, and the statement according to which authorised chelating agents must also comply with other Community legislation should be made more precise.
(6)
Annex IV to Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 provides detailed descriptions of the methods of analysis to be used to measure the nutrient content of EC fertilisers. Those descriptions need to be adjusted in order to have correct analysis values.
(7)
Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(8)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee established by Article 32 of Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
OJ L 304, 21.11.2003, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Council Regulation (EC) No 1791/2006 (OJ L 363, 20.12.2006, p. 1).