/ EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs
Resources Based, Manufacturing and Consumer Goods Industries
Chemicals Industry

Brussels, 1 June 2015

Note to the Members of the Fertiliser Working Group

Subject: preparation of the future standardisation mandate

Dear Members,

As a follow-up of the consultation on the available analytical methods for inorganic and organic fertilisers, you will find in the Annex similar proposals for soil improvers and growing media as well as for liming materials.

Some of you already submitted comments to the lists on soil improvers and growing media when commenting the lists proposed for organic fertilisers. In that case, there is no need to resubmit your comments.

You are welcome to submit your comments to the list by 30 September at the latest.

For any clarification and contribution, please contact directly Vincent Delvaux () in DG GROW D.2

8

ANNEX I
List of existing European harmonised standards relevant for the verification of the compliance of soil improvers and growing media (Quality and labelling requirements)[1] / Type of work / Deadline for publication[2]
EN 12579: Soil improvers and growing media – sampling / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal. / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13040: Soil improvers and growing media - Sample preparation for chemical and physical tests, determination of dry matter content, moisture content and laboratory compacted bulk density / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal. / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 12580: Soil improvers and growing media – determination of a quantity / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal. / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 15238: Soil improvers and growing media – determination of quantity for materials with particle size greater than 60 mm. / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal. / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 15761: Soil improvers and growing media – Pre-shaped growing media - Determination of length, width, height, volume and bulk density / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 15428: soil improvers and growing media – determination of particle size distribution / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13037: Soil improvers and growing media – determination of pH / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13038: Soil improvers and growing media – determination of electrical conductivity / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13652: soil improvers and growing media – extraction of water soluble nutrients / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 15936: Sludge, treated biowaste, soil and waste - Determination of total organic carbon (TOC) by dry combustion
(Method validated for compost) / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13039: soil improvers and growing media - Determination of organic matter content and ash / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13650: soil improvers and growing media – extraction of aqua regia soluble elements / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13654-1: soil improvers and growing media – determination of nitrogen – Part 1: modified Kjeldahl method / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13654-2: Determination of nitrogen – Part 2: Dumas method / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 15959: Fertilizers - Determination of extracted phosphorus / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 15477: Fertilizers - Determination of the water-soluble potassium content / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 14984: Liming materials - Determination of product effect on soil pH - Soil incubation method / 1.Verify whether the proposed method applies to soil improvers
2.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
ISO 11885: 1998 Inductively coupled plasma – atomic emission spectrometry
ISO 11047: 1998 Flame or furnace atomic absorption spectrometry / 1. Verify whether the proposed methods are suitable for the determination of the total copper and zinc content in soil improvers / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
List of existing European harmonised standards relevant for the verification of the compliance of soil improvers and growing media (safety requirements) / Type of work / Deadline for publication[3]
1. Determination of arsenic, cadmium, chromium VI, lead, mercury, nickel, copper and zinc
EN 13650: Soil improvers and growing media - Extraction of aqua regia soluble elements
EN ISO 11885 or ISO 11047 or ISO 9964-3 as mentioned in Annex B of N 13650 (determination methods)
EN 15192: Sludge, treated biowaste and soil – determination of chromium VI in soil material by alkaline digestion and ion chromatography with spectrophotometric detection
CEN/TS 16175-1: Sludge, treated biowaste and soil – determination of mercury in aqua regia and nitric acid digests – Part 1: cold vapour atomic spectrometry (CVAAS)
CEN/TS 16175-2: Sludge, treated biowaste and soil – determination of mercury in aqua regia and nitric acid digests – Part 2: cold vapour atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CV-AFS)
2. Determination of PAHs in compost and digestate
CEN/TS 16181: Sludge, treated biowaste and soil - Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) by gas chromatography (GC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
3. Determination of the presence of pathogens
ISO 6579: Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs - Horizontal method for the detection of Salmonella spp
ISO 11866-2: Milk and milk products - Enumeration of presumptive Escherichia coli - Part 2: Colony-count technique at 44 degree Celsius, using membranes
EN ISO 9308-3: Water quality - Detection and enumeration of Escherichia coli and coliform bacteria - Part 3: Miniaturized method (Most Probable Number) for the detection and enumeration of E. coli in surface and waste water
ISO 16649-2: Microbiology of food and animal feeding stuffs -- Horizontal method for the enumeration of beta-glucuronidase-positive Escherichia coli - Part 2: Colony-count technique at 44 degrees C using 5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl beta-D-glucuronide
CEN/TR 16193: Sludge, treated biowaste and soil – detection and enumeration of E.Coli
4. Determination of the presence of impurities and stones
CEN/TS 16202: Sludge, treated biowaste and soil - Determination of impurities and stones / 1.Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal. / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
List of existing European harmonised standards relevant for the verification of the compliance of liming materials to quality and labelling requirements / Deadline for publication
EN 12945: Liming materials - Determination of neutralizing value - Titrimetric methods / 1. Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 12948: Liming materials - Determination of size distribution by dry and wet sieving / 1. Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 13475: Liming materials - Determination of calcium content - Oxalate method / 1. Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 12947: Liming materials - Determination of magnesium content - Atomic absorption spectrometric method / 1. Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 16357: Carbonate liming materials - Determination of reactivity - Automatic titration method with citric acid
EN 13171: Carbonate liming materials - Determination of reactivity - Potentiometric titration method with hydrochloric acid
EN 14984: Liming materials - Determination of product effect on soil pH - Soil incubation method / 1. Verify whether the methods meet the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
EN 1482: Sampling of solid fertilizers and liming materials / 1. Verify whether the method meets the requirements of a future proposal / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]
List of existing European harmonised standards relevant for the verification of the compliance of inorganic fertilisers to safety requirements / Type of work / Deadline for publication
EN 14888: Fertilizers and liming materials - determination of the Cd content
EN 16317: Fertilizers – Determination of trace elements – determination of As by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after aqua regia dissolution
EN 16318: Fertilizers – Determination of trace elements – determination of Cr (VI) by photometry (method A) and by ion chromatography with spectrophotometric detection (method B)
EN 16319: Fertilizers – Determination of trace elements – determination of cadmium, chromium, lead and nickel by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) after aqua regia dissolution
EN 16320: Fertilisers – Determination of trace elements – determination of Hg by vapour generation after aqua regia dissolution / 1. Where ever possible streamline the analytical methods listed in column 1to keep only the methods that are strictly necessary to verify the compliance of inorganic fertilisers to the future regulation / [MM/YYYY]/[XX months after notification of this Decision to the ESOs]

8

[1] Other methods have been developed by TC 223 but will not be necessarily required to check the compliance of products to the future requirements

[2] ‘Publication’ makes reference to the moment when the relevant European standardisation organisation makes a standard available for its members or to the public.

[3] ‘Publication’ makes reference to the moment when the relevant European standardisation organisation makes a standard available for its members or to the public.