EU Pesticide Approval Status
How do I check EU pesticide approval status?
The European Commission's EU Pesticides Database holds the authoritative EU approval status for an active substance under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009. Each substance has a record listing its status (Approved, Not approved or Pending), approval date, expiry date, function and every regulation that applies to it. You can give me a substance name and I'll pull the record, or you can open it yourself on the Commission's site.
Approach: I searched the Commission's EU Pesticides Database register of active substances and ran two examples.
What a record shows (two examples):
| Substance (EU ID) | Status | Approval date | Expiry date | Function | Regulations listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyphosate (811) | Approved | 2023-12-16 | 2033-12-15 | HB | 01/99/EC, 2010/77/EU, Reg. (EU) 2015/1885, 2016/1056, 2016/1313, 2017/2324, 2019/724, 2022/2364, 2023/2660, Reg. (EU) No 540/2011 [1] |
| Mancozeb (277) | Not approved | 2006-07-01 | 2021-01-04 | FU | 05/72/EC, Reg. (EU) 2018/1796, 2019/2094, 2020/2087, 84/2018, Reg. (EU) No 540/2011, Reg. (EU) No 762/2013 [2] |
How to read it:
- Status is the current legal position. "Not approved" also covers substances that were approved once and have since lost approval. Mancozeb is an example: it was approved from 2006 and its record now shows Not approved.
- Expiry date is the end of the current approval period. Use it to track upcoming renewals.
- Regulations listed is the full legal history: the original inclusion, amendments to Reg. (EU) No 540/2011 (the list of approved substances), extensions, renewals or non-renewals. The most recent act usually explains the current status. Read that act on EUR-Lex for the conditions of use.
- Function gives the use type (for example HB, FU).
To check it yourself: each substance has a page on the Commission's site at https://ec.europa.eu/food/plant/pesticides/eu-pesticides-database/start/screen/active-substances/details/<ID>, for example Glyphosate (811).
What EU approval doesn't settle:
- Product authorisation is national. A plant protection product also needs an authorisation in each Member State where it is sold. I can search national product registers, such as Germany's BVL register.
- Emergency authorisations (Article 53) are listed separately in the same EU database. A Member State can use one to allow a product for a limited period even when the active substance is not approved.
- Great Britain keeps its own active-substance list and product register, separate from the EU's.
I can also list substances by status or by expiry window, for example all approvals expiring in 2027. Send me the substance names or the date range you want.
How are active substances approved and renewed?
Under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009, the producer applies to a rapporteur Member State. That Member State writes a draft assessment report, EFSA peer-reviews it and adopts a conclusion, and the Commission then proposes an Implementing Regulation that approves the substance or refuses it. First approval lasts up to 10 years. Renewal lasts up to 15 years, if the producer applies no later than three years before expiry and the substance still meets the Article 4 criteria [3][4][5].
Approach: I read Articles 4 to 24 of Regulation 1107/2009 in its current consolidated version (02009R1107-20260616), plus EU approval regulations that refer to the renewal rules. I couldn't open the text of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1740, which sets the detailed renewal steps, so its internal deadlines are not given below.
Approval criteria (Article 4)
- A substance "shall be approved" if products containing it can be expected to meet the Article 4(2) requirements on residues and the 4(3) requirements on the product. The product must be sufficiently effective and have no harmful effect on human or animal health or groundwater, and no unacceptable effect on plants or the environment [6].
- Hazard cut-offs come first. The assessment "shall first establish" whether the criteria in Annex II points 3.6.2 to 3.6.4 and 3.7 are met. Only if they are does the rest of the assessment go ahead [6].
- Representative uses: it is enough to show the criteria are met for one or more representative uses of at least one product [6].
- Serious-danger derogation (Article 4(7)): a substance that fails points 3.6.3, 3.6.4, 3.6.5 or 3.8.2 may still be approved for no more than five years, if it is needed against a serious plant-health danger that no other means can contain. Risk mitigation is required. The derogation does not apply to substances classified (or to be classified) as Carc. 1A, Carc. 1B without a threshold, or Repr. 1A [7].
First approval: steps and deadlines
| Step | Who | Deadline | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Application with summary and complete dossier (Art. 8), confidentiality requests, list of studies and data-protection claims | Producer to the rapporteur Member State (a co-rapporteur system is possible) | None | 7 [8] |
| Dossier must include peer-reviewed literature from the last 10 years | Applicant | At submission | 8(5) [9] |
| Acknowledgement of receipt and completeness check | Rapporteur Member State | Within 45 days; missing items have to be supplied within at most 3 months, or the application is inadmissible | 9 [10] |
| Dossiers made public, except information granted confidentiality | EFSA | Without delay | 10 [11] |
| Draft assessment report (DAR), with a proposed MRL where relevant | Rapporteur Member State | 12 months from admissibility; extended by up to 6 months if extra data are requested | 11 [12] |
| DAR circulated and published; 60-day comment period | EFSA | Within 30 days of receipt | 12(1) |
| EFSA conclusion | EFSA | 120 days after comments close (+30 days if experts are consulted); clock extended if extra information is requested (up to 90 days for the applicant) | 12(2)-(3) [13] |
| Review report and draft Regulation to the Standing Committee | Commission | Within 6 months of the EFSA conclusion | 13(1) |
| Regulation: approved (with Art. 6 conditions where appropriate), not approved, or conditions amended; approved substances are added to the list of approved substances | Commission (Art. 79(3) procedure) | None | 13(2), 13(4) [14] |
Article 6 conditions can cover purity and impurities, user categories, restricted areas, risk mitigation, and confirmatory information (Art. 6(f)). The approving Regulation sets a deadline for confirmatory information, and the rapporteur then has 6 months to assess it [15][14].
Renewal (Articles 14 to 20)
- Test: on application, approval "shall be renewed" where the Article 4 criteria are met. Conditions under Article 6 may be added. Renewal lasts up to 15 years; for Article 4(7) substances it is up to five years [4].
- Application:
- A producer submits it to a Member State, copying the Commission, the other Member States and EFSA, no later than three years before expiry [5].
- New data must be identified and justified, for example by data requirements or criteria that did not apply at the last approval, or by a request for amended approval. A timetable for new and ongoing studies must be submitted at the same time [5].
- Transparency: EFSA publishes the renewal information except where confidentiality has been granted [16].
- Extensions (Article 17): if approval is likely to expire before a decision "for reasons beyond the control of the applicant", the expiry is postponed for that applicant for a period long enough to examine the application [17]. These are the extension regulations you see in substance records. For example, Regulation (EU) 2025/2316 extended phosphane, difenoconazole, triclopyr and others [18].
- Work programme and implementing rules (Articles 18 and 19): the Commission may group similar substances into a work programme, and a Regulation sets the detailed renewal procedure [19][20].
- That Regulation is now Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1740, which repealed Regulation (EU) No 844/2012 [21].
- Regulation 844/2012 still governs renewals of substances whose approval ends before 27 March 2024 [22].
- The Commission's renewal page says renewal applications have had to be in IUCLID format since 27 March 2021, and that rapporteur and co-rapporteur Member States are designated under Regulation (EU) No 686/2012. It also says the AIR-6 and AIR-7 programmes run fully under 2020/1740.
- Renewal Regulation (Article 20): the outcome is renewed or not renewed [23].
- If non-renewal is not for health or environmental reasons, the grace period for products is at most 6 months for sale and distribution, plus at most 1 year for use of stocks, 18 months in total.
- If the concern is immediate and about health or the environment, products are withdrawn immediately.
- Review at any time (Article 21): the Commission may withdraw or amend an approval if the criteria are no longer met or confirmatory data were not provided [24].
Special categories
| Category | Approval period | Renewal | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | ≤10 years | ≤15 years | 5, 14 |
| Low-risk | ≤15 years | Articles 4 and 6 to 21 apply | 22 [25] |
| Candidate for substitution (Annex II point 4) | ≤7 years | Renewable once or more, each time ≤7 years | 24 [26] |
| Basic substance | Unlimited; any interested party or a Member State applies to the Commission, and EFSA gives its opinion within 3 months | Can be reviewed at any time | 23 [27] |
| Micro-organisms | Since the 2022 amendment (Regulation (EU) 2022/1438), the earlier version of 1107/2009 still applies to micro-organism renewals where the 2020/1740 application was submitted before 21 November 2022 | 32022R1438 Art. 2 [28] |
I can pull the approval or renewal Regulation for a specific substance, or the EFSA conclusion and Standing Committee (PAFF) discussion behind it.