Biocidal products that are on the market under the current Danish rules, irrespective of whether they are covered by the current Danish authorisation scheme, may for a transitional period continue to be marketed in Denmark pursuant to these rules, until the EU has evaluated all active substances or until expiry of the Biocidal Products Directive in 2014. When the EU has approved the active substances in a product, the product must be authorised in accordance with the new rules.
An active substance is under evaluation when it has neither been refused nor approved and is otherwise one of the active sub-stances covered by the EU's review programme.
The European Commission has prepared an unofficial list of all active substances under the evaluation programme broken down by product-type for which they are being evaluated. This list is updated regularly.
The list can be viewed on European Commission website
The transitional arrangements
Three conditions must be met in order for a biocidal product to be covered by the transitional arrangements.
- The EU must be in the process of evaluating the active substance in the product-type concerned.
- The active substance must not have been placed on the negative list for the product-type concerned.
- The product must not contain any new active substances that were not available on the EU market for biocidal purposes prior to 14 May 2000.
Products that are currently covered by the Danish authorisation scheme
Biocidal products that are covered by the existing Danish authorisation scheme must continue to be authorised pursuant to these rules while the transitional period is in force and the EU is evaluating the active substances in the products.
This applies to biocidal products within the following product-types/uses:
- fungi that attack wood
- harmful organisms in timber and woodwork
- algae
- slime-forming organisms in pulp
- vermin that infest pets
- harmful organisms in textiles
- insects such as cockroaches and ants
- water voles, moles, mice and rats
- certain repellents, for instance mosquito repellents.
This system will continue to apply to such specific products until a decision has been made in the EU to include (approve) the active substances contained in the product. The products must then be authorised pursuant to the new rules.
The Danish Environmental Protection Agency will notify each individual authorisation holder of the relevant application deadlines, etc. when the status of the active substances in the enterprise's products changes from being under evaluation to either refused or authorised.