BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsmeldingen)

Pursuant to Article 4(3) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1) (the ‘Fertilising Products Regulation’ or the ‘FPR’), the Commission shall publish a guidance document for manufacturers and market surveillance authorities with clear information and examples concerning the visual appearance of labels referred to in Annex III to that Regulation.

A task force of representatives of EU Member States and industry stakeholders, representing all the Product Function Categories (PFCs) falling under the scope of the FPR, was created by the Commission in July 2019 in order to support its services (DG GROW/D2) in fulfilling this task. The mandate of this task force was to write a first draft of this document.

This document was shared and discussed with members and observers of the Commission Expert Group on Fertilising Products in 2019 and 2020.

This document is not legally binding and seeks only to provide useful guidance to stakeholders including manufacturers and market surveillance authorities. Only the Court of Justice of the European Union is competent to authoritatively interpret Union law.

This guidance document provides explanations on the practical implementation of the labelling requirements set in Annex III to the FPR. It includes examples of labels for the different PFCs of EU fertilising products. These examples are purely indicative. The position of each part, as well as the colours used in this guidance document are not mandatory. It is up to the manufacturer to decide where to place and how to format the information on the label, while respecting the requirements in the FPR.

Unless otherwise provided in this guidance document or no colours are used at all, the following colour codes are used in the label examples:

• In blue: general requirements,
• In orange: specific requirements for each PFC,
• In black: other information that has to be provided on the label,
• In green: indicated nutrients.