22.3.2003 Official Journal of the European Union L 76/21 COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 18 March 2003 concerning the non-inclusion of aldicarb in Annex I to Council Directive 91/414/EEC and the with- drawal of authorisations for plant protection products containing this active substance (2003/199/EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 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 (*) and in particular the third and fourth subpara- graphs of Article 8(2) thereof, Having regard to 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 (%) and in particular Article 7(3A)(b) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas: (1)  Article 8(2) of Directive 91/414/EEC provided for the Commission to carry out a programme of work for the examination of the active substances used in plant protection products which were already on the market on 25 July 1993. Detailed rules for the carrying out of this programme were established in Regulation (EEC) No 360092, (2)  Commission Regulation (EC) No 933/94 of 27 April 1994 laying down the active substances of plant protec- tion products and designating the rapporteur Member States for the implementation of Regulation (EEC) No 3600/92 (), designated the active substances which should be assessed in the framework of Regulation (EEC) No 3600/92, designated a Member State to act as rapporteur in respect of the assessment of each substance and identified the producers of each active substance who submitted a notification in due time. (3)  Aldicarb is one of the 89 active substances designated in Regulation (EC) No 933/94. (") OJ L 230, 19.8.1991, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Commis- sion Directive 2003/5/EC (O] L 8, 14.1.2003, p. 7). () OJ L 366, 15.12.1992, p. 10. Regulation as last amended by Regu- lation (EC) No 2266/2000 (O] L 259, 13.10.2000, p. 27). () OJ L 107, 28.4.1994, p. 8. Regulation as last amended by Regula- tion (EC) No 2230/95 (O] L 225, 22.9.1995, p. 1). (4) In accordance with Article 7(1)(c) of Regulation (EEC) No 3600/92, the United Kingdom, being the designated rapporteur Member State, submitted on 30 April 1996 to the Commission the report of its assessment of the information submitted by the notifiers in accordance with Article 6(1) of that Regulation. On receipt of the report of the rapporteur Member State, the Commission undertook consultations with experts of the Member States as well as with the main notifier Rhone-Poulenc, (now Bayer CropScience) as provided for in Article 7(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 3600/92. The assessment report prepared by the United Kingdom has been reviewed by the Member States and the Commission within the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health. It appeared that the information submitted was not sufficient to determine whether or not, under the proposed conditions of use, plant protection products containing the active substance concerned would satisfy in general the require- ments laid down in Article 5(1)(a) and (b) of Directive 91/414/EEC. The dossier and the information from the review were also submitted to the Scientific Committee for Plants. The Committee was asked to comment on the ecotoxicological risk assessment, including the risk to small birds. The Committee noted that the risk assess- ment for the exposure of small birds to granules criti- cally depends on the assumption that more than 99 % of the granules are incorporated into the soil. Whilst this may be achieved under ideal conditions, the Committee believed that this high degree of incorporation is not consistently achievable under normal agricultural use conditions and therefore advised that a re-assessment is necessary. In relation to other non-target organisms the Committee is not able to assess from the data available whether the use of aldicarb should continue pending the generation, submission and evaluation of further data.