The new Fertilising Products Regulation (FPR) (Regulation (EU) 2019/1009) will enter into force in July 2022, repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003. The new Regulation introduces new requirements related to quality, safety, and labelling of fertilizing products and extends the scope to organic fertilizers, organo-mineral fertilizers, growing media, biostimulants, and other products. The Regulation also harmonises EU rules for products derived from waste organic materials and by-products and provides rules to recover nutrients into secondary raw materials.
In so doing, the Regulation significantly contributes to the EU Circular Economy objectives.
As of July 2022, producers will need to demonstrate that their products meet the requirements of the FPR before affixing the CE mark. How can they do so?
In February 2020, the European Commission notified CEN with a Standardization Request in support of the FPR. The Standardization Request called for European Standards (EN) and Technical Specifications (TS) to provide analytical methods to be used by producers to verify the compliance of their products with the Regulation. The deliverables based on this Standardization Request will ensure full harmonisation of the European Single Market, granting producers access to CE marking, and will play a pivotal role in fostering the use of organic and bio-waste-based fertilisers. They will provide testing methods for safety and environmental criteria, such as pathogen detection and contaminants determination.
The Standardization Request is structured following a 'two-step approach': the TS describe the testing methods, which are then validated through interlaboratory studies and consolidated in subsequent European Standards (ENs).
From February to April 2022, as part of the first phase, CEN published 82 Technical Specifications, which will allow producers to be ready to abide by the Regulation’s requirements by July 2022. This milestone is the result of the extraordinary effort carried out by more than 300 experts participating in 15 Working Groups distributed over three Technical Committees (TCs).
These deliverables were published by CEN/ TC 223 ‘Soil improvers and growing media’ (whose Secretariat is held by NEN), CEN/TC 260 ‘Fertilisers and liming material’ (whose Secretariat is held by DIN), and CEN/TC 455 ‘Plant biostimulants’ (secretariat held by AFNOR).
The ENs which will follow-up on these TS are currently under development and are expected to be published in 2024 and 2025.
Alessia GAETANI
agaetani@cencenelec.eu
