This report describes the outcome of a Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) audit in Sweden, carried out between 13 to 20 May 2014, under the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on official food and feed controls and Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009.
The objective of the audit was to evaluate the controls on pesticides.
The report concludes that Sweden is well placed to fully implement Directive 2009/128/EC as operator training and testing of application equipment has been in place for many years. Farmers follow Integrated Pest Management and good practices when using plant protection products (PPPs). While there are well documented procedures for PPP authorisation, the system of mutual recognition is not effective due to Member State (MS) specific requirements and/or the refusal to accept the evaluations done by other MS.
As regards emergency authorisations, there are cases where such authorisations are granted even where the specific pest can be controlled by other reasonable means.
The scope and frequency of inspections is not sufficient to ensure that only authorised PPPs are marketed. The scope of inspections at growers is not sufficient to ensure that only authorised PPPs are used in accordance with the conditions of use, with the exception of controls under Cross
Compliance. The absence of a PPP formulation analysis programme means the system for detection of illegal or counterfeit PPPs is not sufficiently effective.
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