Authorisation expiry dates for plant protection products: what they mean and what to check before spraying

Savvas Pastopoulos, Agronomist MSc, Pastopoulos Agronomics, Neos Mylotopos, Pella, Greece

Hundreds of products in the Greek Ministry's approval database carry an authorisation expiry date that has already passed, with no withdrawal recorded against them. This is neither a database error nor a set of illegal products: the European regulation expressly provides for the authorisation to be extended while the renewal decision is pending. This article explains what that date means, when an expiry really is the end, and what must be checked before every application.

1. What the expiry date of an authorisation is

Every plant protection product on the Greek market holds an authorisation issued for a fixed term. That term is not arbitrary: it is tied to the approval of the active substance at European level. When the approval of the active substance is renewed, Member States re-examine the authorisations of the products containing it, and the regulation requires the competent authority to decide at the latest twelve months after the renewal of that approval [1].

The date on the authorisation is therefore the point by which a re-examination is expected to have been completed. It is not an expiry date in the sense a foodstuff carries one. It is an administrative milestone.

2. Why a product with a past date is still on the market

The regulation addresses the case where the authority does not keep up. Where, for reasons beyond the control of the authorisation holder, no decision on renewal has been taken before the authorisation expires, the competent authority shall extend the authorisation for the period necessary to complete the examination and adopt a decision [1].

An equivalent provision exists one level up, at the active substance. Where an approval appears likely to expire before a renewal decision has been taken, the approval period is extended for a period sufficient to examine the application [2]. These extensions are issued through Commission implementing regulations and cover dozens of substances every year.

The practical result is that a product may carry a 2022 date and be placed on the market entirely lawfully in 2026, because the renewal of its active substance is still pending at European level. The Ministry's database shows it as active, because active is what it is.

3. When expiry really is the end

There are three cases in which a product genuinely leaves the market: the authorisation is withdrawn, amended, or not renewed. In all three, the competent authority may grant a grace period for the disposal, storage, placing on the market and use of existing stocks [3].

Where the reason for withdrawal is unrelated to the protection of health or the environment, the grace period is limited and shall not exceed six months for sale and distribution, plus a maximum of one further year for disposal, storage and use of existing stocks [3]. Where the reason does relate to health or the environment, the margins are shorter or are not granted at all.

Sources: 3 4

4. Emergency authorisations are a different matter

Alongside ordinary authorisations sit emergency ones. Where a danger cannot be contained by any other reasonable means, the competent authority may authorise the placing on the market of a product for a period not exceeding 120 days, for limited and controlled use [5].

Here the expiry date is binding. It is not silently extended and it does not renew automatically. Once it passes, that particular use is no longer permitted, even if the product is still on the shelf. This distinction carries the most weight in the whole article: the expiry of an ordinary authorisation is an administrative matter, the expiry of an emergency authorisation is a legal limit.

5. What must be checked before every application

A product with a past approval date is neither discarded nor used without checking. It is checked.

6. How the approvals page shows it

In the plantprotect.gr approvals database every product carries its own marking, which is calculated at the moment of viewing rather than at the moment the data file was built [7]. The picture is therefore always the current one. The database itself is in Greek and covers Greek authorisations only.

No product is hidden and none is filtered out by a criterion of our own. Whatever the Ministry publishes is displayed; the marking is added so that the check gets made, not to stand in place of the official decision.

7. Sources

The numbers in the text refer to the list below.

• [1] Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, Article 43, Renewal of authorisation. Source for the twelve-month deadline (paragraph 5) and for the mandatory extension of the authorisation where the decision is delayed for reasons beyond the holder's control (paragraph 6). Full text of the article was used.
• [2] Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, Article 17, Extension of the approval period for the duration of the procedure. Source for the extension of an active substance approval while the renewal decision is pending. Full text of the article.
• [3] Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, Article 46, Grace period. Source for the ceilings of six months on sale and distribution and one further year on disposal, storage and use of stocks. Full text of the article.
• [4] Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, Article 44, Withdrawal or amendment of an authorisation. Source for the cases in which an authorisation is withdrawn or amended.
• [5] Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, Article 53, Emergency situations in plant protection. Source for the 120-day maximum of an emergency authorisation and for the condition of limited and controlled use. Full text of the article.
• [6] Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food, plant protection product legislation. Source for the national framework and for the published authorisation and withdrawal decisions.
• [7] Plant protection product approvals database, plantprotect.gr. Source for the marking described in section 6, as generated from the Ministry's official data.