ABSTRACT
Plant protection products have to be evaluated and authorized in the EC-Member States since 1993 in accordance with Directive 91/414/EEC. The programme for evaluating existing active substances (which were on the market before July 1993) involves several steps and stages, stretching over a period of up to formerly 10, and now 15 years. The programme is co-ordinated by the European Commission, with the assistance of the European Community Co-Ordination (ECCO)-Team since 1996. The ECCO-Team consists of two groups; one is situated at the Pesticides Safety Directorate in York (United Kingdom) and the other at the Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit-BVL (Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety) in Braunschweig (Germany). They provide technical and administrative support to the programme for the evaluation of active substances on behalf of the European Commission, and are responsible for the ECCO peer review programme in particular. The programme has been extremely successful, with over 160 active substances having been peer reviewed, facilitating over 100 decisions on the acceptability of those actives at Community level.
