Regulation (EC) No. 304/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the export and import of dangerous chemicals.

On September 1998, the Community signed the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (the PIC Convention). The objectives of this Regulation are, on the one hand, to implement the PIC Convention and, on the other hand, to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts in the international movement of hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm as well as to contribute to their environmentally sound use. These objectives shall be achieved by facilitating exchange of information relating to the characteristics of such chemicals and pesticides, by providing for a decision-making process within the Community on their import and export and by disseminating decisions to Parties and other countries as appropriate. Article 2 defines the scope of the present Regulation by specifying the chemicals to which these provisions shall apply and, on the other side, those chemicals which shall be excluded from the application scope. Each Member State shall designate the authority or authorities who shall be responsible for the administrative functions hereby defined. The chemicals covered by the provisions of this Regulation relating to export notification, PIC notification and the PIC procedure respectively shall be as listed in Annex I. Articles 7 and 8 deal with export notifications. Article 9 specifies the information to be submitted to the competent designated authority in each Member State by exporters of chemicals referred to in Annex I. Chemicals that are intended for export shall be subject to the measures on packaging and labelling established in, or pursuant to, Directive 67/548/EEC, Directive 1999/45/EC, Directive 91/414/EEC and Directive 98/8/EC, or any other specific Community legislation (art. 16). Article 17 lays down obligations of the authorities of the Member States for controlling import and export. Member States are required under article 18 to adopt the penalties to be applied in case of infringement. The penalties shall be effective, proportional and dissuasive. Article 19 regards with further details the exchange of information between the Commission and Member States.