16.3.2004 Official Journal of the European Union L 78/53 COMMISSION DECISION of 10 March 2004 concerning the non-inclusion of atrazine in Annex I to Council Directive 91/414/EEC and the withdrawal of authorisations for plant protection products containing this active substance (notified under document number C(2004) 731) (Text with EEA relevance) (2004/248[EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 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 (), as last amended by Commission Directive 2003/ 119/EC (3, and in particular the third and the fourth sub- paragraphs 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 (), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2266/ 2000 (%), and in particular Article 7(3A)(b) thereof, 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 Commission Regulation (EEC) No 3600/92 (°), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 2230/95 (°), designated the active substances which should be assessed in the framework of Regu- lation (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)  Atrazine is one of the 89 active substances designated in Regulation (EC) No 933/94. (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 11 November 1 () OJ L 230, 19.8.1991, p. 1. () OJ L 325,12.12.2003, p. 41. () OJ L 366, 15.12.1992, p. 10. () OJ L 259, 13.10.2000, p. 27. () O] () 0] ) O] L 107, 28.4.1994, p. 8. L 225,22.9.1995, p. 1. 6 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. (5)  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 Syngenta as provided for in Article 7(3) of Regu- lation (EEC) No 3600/92. (6)  The Commission organised a tripartite meeting with the main data submitter and the rapporteur Member State for this active substance on 6 June 2003. (7)  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. This review was finalised on 3 October 2003 in the format of the Commission review report for atrazine. (8)  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 aspects of possible contamination of groundwater by atrazine. In its opinion (), the Scientific Committee on Plants did not accept the reported calculations of the environ- mental concentrations in groundwater. The Committee is also of the opinion that available monitoring data does not demonstrate that concentrations of atrazine or its breakdown products will not exceed 0,1 pgfl in groundwater and it expects that for soils with pH above six concentrations of atrazine and its breakdown products will not exceed 0,1 pg/l. (9)  Assessments made on the basis of the information submitted have not demonstrated that it may be expected that, under the proposed conditions of use, plant protection products containing atrazine satisfy in general the requirements laid down in Article 5(1)(a) and (b) of Directive 91/414/EEC. In particular available monitoring data were insufficient to demonstrate that in large areas concentrations of the active substance and its breakdown products will not exceed 0,1 pg/l in ground- water. Moreover it cannot be assured that continued () Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Plants on specific questions from the Commission concerning the evaluation of atrazine in the context of Council Directive 91[414/EEC — SCP/ATRAZINE/002- Final — adopted on 30 January 2003.