21.8.2002 Official Journal of the European Communities L 224/23 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1490/2002 of 14 August 2002 laying down further detailed rules for the implementation of the third stage of the programme of work referred to in Article 8(2) of Council Directive 91/414/EEC and amending Regulation (EC) No 451/2000 (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant-protection products on the market ('), as last amended by Commission Directive 2002/ 48[EC (3, and in particular the second subparagraph of Article 8(2) thereof, Whereas: 1 1 2 4 5 () O] () O] () O] () O] () O The Commission is to undertake a programme of work for the gradual examination of active substances on the market two years after the date of notification of Direc- tive 91/414/EEC within a period of 12 years. The first stage of this programme was laid down by Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3600/92 of 11 December 1992 laying down the detailed rules for the implementation of the first stage of the programme of work referred to in Article 8(2) of Council Directive 91/414/EEC concerning the placing of plant-protection products on the market (°), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2266/ 2000 (). This first stage is ongoing. The second stage of work was laid down by Commission Regulation (EC) No 451/2000 of 28 February 2000 laying down the detailed rules for the implementation of the second and third stages of the work programme referred to in Article 8(2) of Council Directive 91/414/ EEC (), and is also ongoing. A third stage of work was provided for in Regulation (EC) No 451/2000 for an additional number of active substances not covered by the first and second stages of the programme. Producers wishing to secure the inclu- sion of these active substances in Annex I to Directive 91/414[EEC have provided detailed information relating to the current stage of completeness of their dossiers and on the endpoints and have undertaken to provide a full data package. For the third stage of the work programme, Article 10(3) of Regulation (EC) No 451/2000 specifies that detailed provisions concerning the submission of complete dossiers, the time limit(s) for their submission and the fee regime for the active substances concerned have to be established by the Commission in a Regulation to be adopted in accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414/EEC. L 230, 9.8.1991, p. 1. L 148, 6.6.2002, p. 19. L 366, 15.12.1992, p. 10. L 259, 13.10.2000, p. 27. L 55, 29.2.2000, p. 25. () Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parlia- ment and of the Council of 28 January 2002 () created the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to ensure that the Community has access to high-quality, indepen- dent and efficient scientific and technical support in order to achieve a high level of health protection in rela- tion to legislation concerning safety of food and feed. It is therefore appropriate to provide that the EFSA should have a role in the programme of work on active substances, and the scope of this involvement should be defined as soon as possible. In order to ensure that dossiers are received by the Member States in a manageable way, the active substances to be evaluated should be divided into two groups with separate time limits for the submission of dossiers. Further, at an initial stage it should be sufficient that notifiers provide only a list of the available tests and studies to the rapporteur Member States, in order to permit the Member States to establish whether a full data package is available to be submitted by the specified time limit. Where such data will not be available by the time limit, it will not be possible to complete re-evaluation of the active substance within the timetable provided for in Directive 91/414/EEC and a decision should therefore be taken immediately not to include the substance concerned in Annex I to the Directive. Authorisation of products containing such active substance should be withdrawn by Member States. The relationships between producers, Member States, the Commission and the EFSA and the obligations on each of them for the implementation of the programme should be laid down, taking into account experience gained during the first and second stages of the programme. Close cooperation between all parties involved and a scrupulous respect of time limits laid down is necessary to ensure the efficiency of the programme. Strict time limits for all elements of the third stage of the work programme should be set in order to ensure its finalisation within an acceptable time period. Where cooperation with notifiers ceases it is impossible to continue further evaluation efficiently and therefore the evaluation should be terminated. ) OJL 31, 1.2.2002, p. 1.