On 29 July a royal decree will come into force to increase the fees for certain applications for plant protection products, on the one hand, and to calculate the annual contributions   for the quantities sold, from now on, on the basis of the new labelling regulations, on the other hand.

Fees (to be paid for each application)

The increase in fees will apply to applications submitted from 29 July 2019 onwards. The date of receipt of the application will be decisive. In concrete terms, the following fees will be adjusted:

• Application for a national authorisation with Belgium as a Zonal Rapporteur Member State: increased fee for new products or renewals, from 15,000 to 25,000 euros
• Mutual recognition for new products or renewals: increase from 3,000 to 6,000 euros
• Mutual recognition for an extension of use: increase from 1,500 to 3,000 euros
• Renewal of authorisations requiring an assessment of the conditions for renewal: increase from 1,000 to 3,000 euros
• Administrative renewals (without assessment): a new fee of 250 euros
• Change of the authorisation holder or trade name (also for parallel import permits): increase from 250 to 500 euros
• European ‘rapporteur’ for an active substance: increase from 150,000 to 200,000 euros
• European ‘co-rapporteur’ for an active substance: increase from 75,000 to 100,000 euros
• Export certificate: increase from 80 to 250 euros
• Parallel import permits and renewals: increase from 1000 to 1500 euros

Annual contributions (to be paid per year)

The calculation of the annual contributions is currently based on

• the quantities sold (declared annually in application of the royal decree of 28/02/1994) and
• the risk phrases (R-phrases) European Directive 1999/45/EC mentioned in the labelling requirements on the authorisation certificate of the plant protection products.

This means that the more a product is sold and the more dangerous it is, the higher the annual fee will be.

Directive 1999/45/EC was replaced by Regulation (EC) 1272/2008, which no longer contains R-phrases. That is why the calculation will, from now on, be based on the number of hazard pictograms. The table below shows how many points are awarded to each pictogram. For plant protection products for professional use, 4 eurocents will be charged per kilo or per litre sold and per point; for products for non-professional use, the amount charged is 21 eurocents. The current minimum annual contributions of 300 and 450 euros respectively remain unchanged.

The new calculation method will be applied to the quantities sold in 2020, to be paid in 2021. The label on 1/12/2019 will be used for this purpose. For the annual contributions to be paid in 2020 (sale 2019), the previous method of calculation will continue to be applied.