Explanatory note

These Regulations further amend the Plant Protection Products Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1995 (S.R. 1995 No. 371), as amended by S.R. 1997 No. 471, S.R. 1997 No. 507 and S.R. 2002 No. 125 (“the principal Regulations”) which implement in Northern Ireland Council Directive 91/414/EEC (O.J. No. L230, 19.8.91, p. 1 to be read with the Corrigenda published in O.J. No. L170, 25.6.92, p. 40) concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (“the Directive”), as amended.

Regulation 2 amends the definition of the Directive in the principal Regulations so as to implement Commission Directives 2001/99/EC (O.J. No. L304, 21.11.2001, p. 14) (which adds the active substances glyphosate and thifensulfuron-methyl to Annex I of the Directive on the 1st July 2002), 2001/103/EC (O.J. No. L313, 30.11.2001, p. 37) (which adds 2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid to the Annex on 1st October 2002) and 2002/18/EC (O.J. No. L55, 26.2.02, p. 29) (which adds, isoproturon to the Annex on 1st January 2003).

Transitional arrangements are included in regulation 3 to implement relevant saving provisions included in implementing Directives (2001/87/EC for acibenzolar-s-methyl or pymetrozine and 2001/49/EC for flupyrsulfuron-methyl) for the purpose of disapplying regulation 13(5)(a)(i) of the principal Regulations so that provisional approvals are not revoked following the inclusion of these active substances in Annex I to the Directive.

The Regulations revoke the Plant Protection Products (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 (S.R. 2002 No. 125).