Following adoption of the common position text, the European Parliament (EP) Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy recommended two further amendments to be considered at the EP's second reading at plenary session in March. In the event, the EP only voted through one amendment - to extend the period for dossier submission from 18 months to 36 months (Article 4).
The FSA now expect the Directive (comprising the common position text and the amendment to Article 4) to be adopted by Council towards the end of April 2002.
Once the text has been published in the Official Journal, the FSA will begin the process of transposing the Directive into UK legislation and will be consulting widely as they undertake that task.