Central Zone Regulatory Update
Central Zone Regulatory Update
On Wednesday December 3rd, 2025, Kerona Scientific held its 6th Virtual Dublin Plant Protection Symposium. Sadhbh O’Dwyer of the Pesticides Registration and Control Division (PRDC), Ireland, gave an update from the Central Zone Steering Committee (CZSC). The CZSC is made up of the 12 CEU Member States (MS) which currently meet four times a year. The Secretariat publishes the sanitised minutes of each meeting on CIRCABC. The CZSC is chaired by one country per year, with Slovakia set to chair in 2026.
A bullet point is an agreed decision of the CZSC and applies to all countries in the Central zone, bullet points can be found on the public part of CIRCABC. The following bullet point was agreed in 2025: ‘Presenting walk-in tunnel uses in the GAP’. The “List of agreements by the Central Zone – June 2025” can be found at the following path: CIRCABC>European Commission>Health and Food Safety>PPP Zonal>Library>Center>Public Information>Bullet points. Be aware the date changes every time there is an update to the list. While there was only one bullet point agreed in 2025, there are several under discussion and they hope to be finalised in 2026.
One of the main functions of the Committee is product allocation. A major product allocation was finalised this year: a zonal RMS has now been allocated to Article 43 renewal of products containing active substances from AIR 5 Group 2. The Secretariat communicated the final allocation to the stakeholders in May. There are currently no product allocations due to begin in 2026.
A major project underway in the EU at present is the drive to improve guidance documents. MS have put forward their priority list for the updating of current guidance documents and the developments of new ones to the European Commission. The Commission is finalising the Food & Feed Safety Simplification Omnibus Package, aiming to publish the draft Omnibus Regulation on the 16th of December, which will be negotiated at Council and Parliament before the final Regulation is agreed. It is expected that the package will be finalised in Q2 or Q3 2026. Some of the areas the package will look at are the simplification and clarification of regulatory requirements for plant protection products (PPP), the timelines around active substance (a.s.) and PPP authorisations and renewals, the speeding up of access to biological alternatives and finally the data protection rules. The package is expected to have a major impact on the current processes in place in the Central zone as well as in the EU both at a.s. and product level.
If you missed the Dublin Plant Protection Symposium, please contact Kerona if you wish to obtain a copy of the presentations. For assistance with the Regulation of PPP in the EU and UK the Kerona Regulatory team can be contacted at info@kerona.ie