6.6.83 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 147/11 COUNCIL DIRECTIVE of 16 May 1983 amending Directive 77/728/EEC on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to the classification, packaging and labelling of paints, varnishes, printing inks, adhesives and similar products (837265/EEC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the Euro- pean Economic Community, and in particular Article 100 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commis- sion (1), Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3), Whereas it has been considered desirable that the rules embodied in the separate Directives on preparations and in particular in Directives 73/173/EEC (%), as last amended by Directive 80/781/EEC (5), and 77/728/EEC () should be replaced by a single Directive concerning all pre- parations; whereas it is not yet possible to adopt such a Directive; whereas it is necessary in the meantime to amend Directive 77/728/EEC; Whereas paints, varnishes, printing inks and adhe- sives subject to the provisions of Directive 77/728/ EEC frequently contain solvents covered by the provisions of Directive 73/173/EEC; whereas, during the transposition of these two Directives into national law, difficulties have appeared in several Member States because different terms describing the same thing have been used in both texts; whereas it is, therefore, necessary to harmonize the “text and scope of both Directives as far as possible; Whereas, in different Articles of Directives 77/728/ EEC, account should be taken of the amendments made to Council Directive 67/548/EEC of 27 June 1967 on the approximation of the laws, regulations . and administrative provisions relating to the classifi- cation, packaging and labelling of dangerous sub- (') OJ No C 156, 25. 6. 1981, p. 8. () OJ No C 125, 17.5. 1982, p. 148. () OJ No C 310, 30. 11. 1981, p. 31. () OJNoL189,11.7.1973,p.7. (*) OJ No L 229, 30. 8. 1980, p. 57. () OJ No L 303, 28. 11. 1977, p. 23. stances (7) by Directive 79/831/EEC (8), particularly the newly introduced danger categories ‘very toxic’ and ‘extremely flammable’; Whereas Article 3 of Directive 77/728/EEC con- tains provisions for classification of the prepara- tions according to the degree of risk; whereas, for . the classification of the preparations as toxic or harmful, reference is made inter alia to Direc- tive 73/173/EEC; whereas, since the original version of Directive 73/173/EEC made no reference to corrosive and irritant solvents, it was unable to provide any details concerning these categories; Whereas, now that the scope of Directive 73/173/ EEC has been extended to cover corrosive and irri- tant solvents, Article 3 (3) (¢) and (d) of Directive 77/728/EEC should be amended accordingly; Whereas the wording of the third indent of Article 3 (3) (a) of Directive 77/728/EEC has proved diffi- cult to interpret and should, therefore, be drafted more precisely and supplemented; whereas, for the same reason, additions should be made to the last indent of Article 3 (3) (b), (c) and (d), respectively, of that Directive, ’ HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: Article 1 Articles 1 to 11 of Directive 77/728/EEC shall be _replaced by the following text: ‘Article 1 1. This Directive shall concern: — the classification, — the packaging, — the labelling, (") OJ No 196, 16. 8. 1967, p. 1. (® OJ No L 259, 15. 10. 1979, p. 10.