Recitals

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

• Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
• Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2009 concerning statistics on pesticides⁽¹⁾, and in particular Article 5(3) thereof,

Whereas:

1. Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009 establishes a common framework for producing comparable European statistics on the sales and use of pesticides.
2. The Commission is to adapt, on a regular basis and at least every five years, the list of substances to be covered and their classification in categories of products and chemical classes as set out in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1185/2009. As the latter was last updated in 2017 by Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/269⁽²⁾, the list annexed to that Regulation needs to be updated to cover the years from 2021 to 2024.
3. Given the number of substances concerned and the complex process of identifying and classifying the relevant compounds, it is difficult for the national statistical authorities to acquire the array of tools they need to collect information on the use and placing on the market of pesticides. Consequently, only substances assigned an identification number by one or both of the two major internationally recognised institutions that register chemical compounds or pesticides, the Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society and the Collaborative International Pesticides Analytical Council, should be included.
4. The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee established by Article 7 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽³⁾,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: