As the IOAS informed ACO earlier, Regulation EC 889/2008 has been amended by Regulation EU 2164/2019 issued 17th December 2019 with amendments coming into force as of 6th January 2020 (i.e 20 days from date of publication).

The IOAS wishes to draw your attention to the fact that the recently amended Annex II of EC 889/2008 does not contain any more restrictions to the use of copper and to the use of ethylene as in the previous version of the Annex II.

Annex II of EU 2164/2019 of 17th December 2019 replacing Annex II of EC 889/2008, coming in force as of 6th January 2020 has a general requirement to all substances listed in it: “All the substances listed in this Annex have to comply at least with the conditions for use as specified in the Annex to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011 (1). More restrictive conditions for use for organic production are specified in the second column of each table.”

This means that for all substances listed in Annex II without specific restrictions, the requirements in EU 540/2011 must be followed from 6th January 2020 on. Current consolidated version of EU 540/2011 is attached here for your reference.

For the period 1st Jan 2019 – 31st Dec. 2025 EU 540/2011 defines the following restrictions: Use of Copper (see Part E, point 10, page 342-343): restrictions to the purity of the allowed copper substances, Only uses resulting in a total application of maximum 28 kg of copper per hectare over a period of 7 years shall be authorised. In addition, “in their overall assessment Member States shall pay particular attention to: the amount of active substance applied and ensure that the authorised amounts, in terms of rates and number of applications, do not exceed the minimum necessary to achieve the desired effects and do not cause any unacceptable effect on the environment taking into account background levels of copper at the application site, and, where the information is available, copper input from other sources. Member States may in particular decide to set a maximum annual application rate not exceeding 4 kg/ha of copper.

In regard to use of ethylene (see Part A, point 227, page 124) no restrictions are defined. In general the same restrictions as in the current EC 889/2008 apply.

The previous allowed maximum of 6kg copper/ha per year is removed and the stricter restrictions defined in EU 540/2011 apply.

Please view the EU 540-2011 list of approved substances in the EU_consolid 2019

Please view the EU 2164-2019 amending EC 889