Publication of 33 CEN Standards for CE-marked Plant Biostimulants
November 2024
New CEN standards published
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has published the 33 standards for plant biostimulants placed on the market in accordance with the Fertilising Products Regulation (EU) 2019/1009.
In other words, on 27 November, CEN made the 33 standards available to the 34 National Standardisation Bodies.
The NSBs will still need to publish them so that interested parties can purchase them via NSBs. NSBs have until the end of 2025 to do so.
The CEN/Technical Committee 455 on plant biostimulants drafted those standards and we would like to congratulate all the experts involved. That encompasses a few EBIC members who have been working very hard, who we would like to thank for this impressive and timely work. A special note goes to Benoît Planques from Hello Nature who, as the Chairman of CEN/TC 455, drove the process forward, making CEN/TC 455 the only Technical Committee producing norms for the Fertilising Products Regulation (FPR) to finish on schedule.
In terms of next steps, 26 standards still need to be cited in the OJEU to become Harmonised Standards (hENs).
A harmonised standard is a European Standard adopted on the basis of a request made by the European Commission for the application of EU harmonisation legislation. The use of standards remains voluntary, but compliance with standards creates a presumption of conformity. That should happen in early 2025.
As a refresher, pursuant to the FPR, the European Commission requested CEN develop European standards for plant biostimulants to facilitate conformity assessment related to the justification of product claims, analyses for the presence of contaminants and microorganisms, labelling, sampling, etc.
The standards for other fertilising products (under the scope CEN/TC 260 and CEN/TC223) are expected to be published by 2027-2028.
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