The new EU Fertilizer Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of June 5, 2019, laying down rules for making EU fertilizer products available on the market and amending Regulations (EC) No. 1069/2009 and (EC) No. 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No. 2003/2003, extends the harmonization legislation for making EU fertilizer products available on the European internal market and establishes specific principles for affixing the CE marking.
The EU Fertilizer Products Regulation replaces the previous European legal basis, Regulation (EC) No. 2003/2003, and in particular extends the scope to include soil improvers, growing media and plant biostimulants.
The EU Fertilizer Products Regulation does not apply, inter alia, to - animal by-products or derived products, the making available on the market of which is subject to the requirements of Regulation (EC) No. 1069/2009 and - plant protection products, which fall within the scope of Regulation (EC) No. 1107/2009.
The regulation (EU) has been in force since July 16, 2022.
The key points and innovations of the regulation or further information are listed below:
What is a fertilizer product? The EU Fertilizer Products Regulation defines in Art 2 para 1 a fertilizer product as a substance, a mixture, a microorganism or any other material which is applied or intended to be applied either as such or mixed with another material to supply plants or fungi with nutrients or to improve their nutritional efficiency to plants or their rhizosphere or to fungi or their mycosphere or to form their rhizosphere or mycosphere.
What is an EU fertilizer product? According to Art 2 para 2 of the EU Fertilizer Products Regulation, an "EU fertilizer product" is a fertilizer product that is CE marked when it is made available on the market. As fertilizer products may differ in their functioning, the safety and quality requirements have been adapted according to their intended use. In future, EU fertilizer products will therefore be assigned to individual product function categories, for each of which special safety and quality requirements apply. Details can be found in Annex I of the Regulation. EU fertilizers that meet the applicable requirements of the respective component material categories ("CMC") according to the Annex of the EU Fertilizer Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 will be made available on the market with "CE marking". Note in particular that an EU fertilizer product may only consist of component materials that meet the requirements for one or more of the CMCs listed in Annex II.
In summary, this means that an EU fertilizer product must in principle - meet the requirements in Annex I for the relevant product functional category, as well as - meet the requirements in Annex II for the relevant component material category, - be labeled in accordance with the labeling requirements in Annex III, and - pose no risk to humans, animals or plants, to safety or to the environment.
The procedure to prove that the requirements of this regulation are fulfilled for an EU fertilizer product is the so-called conformity assessment procedure. The procedure according to Art 15 of the EU Fertilizer Products Regulation is carried out at one of the notified conformity assessment bodies that are established according to the EU Fertilizer Products Regulation. An overview of these bodies can be found on the website of the EU Commission.
What are the obligations of economic operators? The basic obligations of the individual economic operators (i.e. manufacturers, authorized representatives, importers and distributors) can be found in Articles 6 to 12 of the EU Fertilizer Products Regulation. Special attention is drawn to the requirement of a conformity assessment procedure according to Art. 15 of the EU Fertilizer Products Regulation for manufacturers and importers.
What happens to products that are still labeled according to Regulation (EC) No. 2003/2003? Art 52 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 states in this regard that Member States shall not impede the making available on the market of products placed on the market before 16 July 2022 as fertilizers labelled "EC fertilizer" in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003.
Where can I find further information? Below you will find links tofurther information from the EU Commission: - FAQs related to Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 on fertilising products (the 'Fertilising Products Regulation') - Guidance document labelling of EU fertilising products - Annexe to Guidance document labelling EU fertilising products EN