L 209/4 Official Journal of the European Union 4.8.2012 COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 712/2012 of 3 August 2012 amending Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008 concerning the examination of variations to the terms of marketing authorisations for medicinal products for human use and veterinary medicinal products (Text with EEA relevance) THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Directive 2001/82/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to veterinary medicinal products (), and in particular Article 27b thereof, Having regard to Directive 2001/83/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use (3), and in particular Article 23b(1) thereof, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and estab- lishing a European Medicines Agency (}), and in particular Article 16(4) and Article 41(6) thereof, Whereas: (1)  Directive 2009/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 amending Directive 2001/82[EC and Directive 2001/83/EC, as regards vari- ations to the terms of marketing authorisations for medicinal products (*), requires the Commission to adopt appropriate arrangements for the examination of variations to the terms of marketing authorisations granted in accordance with Directives 2001/82/EC and 2001/83/EC not yet covered by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008 (°). It is therefore appropriate to extend the scope of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008. The variations of all marketing authorisations granted in the EU in accordance with the acquis should be subject to the procedures laid down in Regulation (EC) No 1234/2008. (2)  The definition of variation should be clarified and updated in particular to take into consideration the provisions of Regulation (EU) No 1235/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2010 amending, as regards pharmacovigilance of () O] L 311, 28.11.2001, p. 1. () O] L 311, 28.11.2001, p. 67. () O] L 136, 30.4.2004, p. 1. (4 O] L 168, 30.6.2009, p. 33. () O] L 334, 12.12.2008, p. 7. (©) () O] 0] medicinal products for human use, Regulation (EC) No 726/2004 laying down Community procedures for the authorisation and supervision of medicinal products for human and veterinary use and establishing a European Medicines Agency, and Regulation (EC) No 1394/2007 on advanced therapy medicinal products (°), and the provisions of Directive 2010/84/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 2010 amending, as regards pharmacovigilance, Directive 2001/83/EC on the Community code relating to medicinal products for human use (7). For reasons of consistency and with a view to reducing the administrative burden, variations to purely national marketing authorisations should be processed in accordance with the same principles that apply to vari- ations of marketing authorisations granted under the mutual recognition procedure and the decentralised procedure. However, the possibilities for grouping vari- ations should be adapted to the specific characteristics of purely national marketing authorisations. It should be possible to process variations to purely national marketing authorisations in accordance with the worksharing procedure under certain conditions. Where the use of the worksharing procedure has lead to the harmonisation of a section of the summary of product characteristics, it should not be possible for the holder to later undermine the harmonisation achieved by submitting applications for variations to the section thus harmonised in some of the concerned Member States only. Grouping of several variations in a single submission is possible in some cases. It should be clarified that, where several variations are grouped, the procedure for the handling of the variations in the group and the rules for the implementation of those variations should be those of the variation of the highest grade. In order to facilitate the acceptance of complex groupings by the relevant authorities, it should be possible to extend the assessment period. The worksharing procedure is intended to avoid dupli- cation of work. Accordingly, it should be possible for competent authorities to process under the same procedure variations to purely national marketing auth- orisations, variations to marketing authorisations granted under the mutual recognition or decentralised procedure, and variations to centralised marketing authorisations. L 348, 31.12.2010, p. 1. L 348, 31.12.2010, p. 74.