10.12.2013 Official Journal of the European Union L 330/21 REGULATION (EU) No 1258/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 November 2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 273/2004 on drug precursors (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 114(1) thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission, After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments, Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1), Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (3), Whereas: (1) On 7 January 2010, the Commission adopted a report pursuant to Article 16 of Regulation (EC) No 273/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council (}) on the implementation and functioning of the Community legis- lation on monitoring and control of trade in drug precursors. 20 In that report, the Commission recommended further analysing ways to strengthen the control of the trade of acetic anhydride, a scheduled substance in category 2 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 273/2004, pursuant to Article 2(a) of that Regulation, in order to better prevent the diversion of acetic anhydride for the illicit production of heroin. (3)  In its Conclusions of 25 May 2010 on the functioning and implementation of the EU drug precursors legis- lation, the Council invited the Commission to propose legislative amendments after carefully assessing their potential impact on Member States’ authorities and economic operators. (4)  This Regulation clarifies the definition of a scheduled substance: in this regard, the term ‘pharmaceutical prep- aration’, which stems from the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic ~ Substances adopted in Vienna on () OJ C 76, 14.3.2013, p. 54. (?) Position of the European Parliament of 23 October 2013 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of 15 November 2013. (®) Regulation (EC) No 273/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 on drug precursors (O] L 47, 18.2.2004, p. 1). (10) 19 December 1988, is deleted as it is already covered by the relevant terminology of Union legal acts, namely ‘medicinal products’. Moreover, the term ‘other prepara- tions’ is deleted as it duplicates the term ‘mixtures’ already used in that definition. A definition of the term ‘user’ should be introduced for persons possessing substances for purposes other than placing them on the market and it should be clarified that persons using scheduled substances in category 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 273/2004 for other purposes than placing them on the market are obliged to obtain a licence. More detailed rules on registration should be introduced to ensure uniform conditions of registration in all Member States for scheduled substances in category 2 of Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 273/2004. For substances scheduled in a new subcategory 2A of Annex I to that Regulation, in addition to operators users should also be subject to a registration requirement. Where fees are levied for obtaining a licence or regis- tration, Member States should consider adjusting such fees in order to safeguard the competitiveness of micro- enterprises. It should be made clear that Member States have the possibility to act with regard to suspicious transactions involving non-scheduled substances in order to enable them to react more quickly with regard to new trends in the illicit production of drugs. A European database on drug precursors (‘the European database’) should be created to simplify the reporting by Member States with regard to seizures and stopped ship- ments, where possible in an aggregated and anonymised manner and in the least intrusive manner as regards the processing of personal data, taking into account the state of the art of privacy-enhancing technologies and the principle of data limitation. The European database should also serve as a European register of operators and users holding a licence or registration which will facilitate verification of the legitimacy of commercial transactions involving scheduled substances, and should enable operators to provide the competent authorities with information about their transactions involving scheduled substances. Regulation (EC) No 273/2004, as amended by this Regu- lation, envisages the processing of information, including the processing of personal data, for the purposes of enabling the competent authorities to monitor the placing on the market of drug precursors and to