Law 43/2002 of 20 November, on plant health, is the legal framework of the national legislation which also regulates the means of plant protection, including equipment or machinery for the application of agricultural pesticides. which are also subject in certain respects to Community legislation, and it is expressly intended to ensure that the means of plant health protection meet all the necessary conditions and lays down the basic provisions relating to requirements that must be met by these means, the rational use of the means, in what is refers to the application equipment, both to the conditions of use of the pesticide used in each case and to the requirements for the maintenance and entry of such equipment, to the official controls to verify compliance with the said equipment provisions and the supporting instruments necessary for the implementation of the relevant inspections.

Law 43/2002 of 20 November, on plant health, provides in Article 47 (4) that the Ministry of the Environment and the Rural and Marine Environment will have designated reference laboratories among the laboratories of identification and diagnosis of autonomous or other recognised communities with the functions of harmonising the methods and techniques to be used, inter alia pest control functions, as well as analyses and tests which, for the purposes of arbitration or for other purposes, are requested.

For its part, Article 10 of Royal Decree 1702/2011 of 18 November 2011 of periodic inspections of equipment for the application of plant protection products, which transfers to the national legal order Article 8 and Annex II of Directive 2009 /128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October establishing the framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides, provides that the Ministry of the Environment and the Environment Rural and Marine, current Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment, will designate a National Laboratory of Inspection of Equipment for the Application of Plant Protection Products.

The National Reference Laboratory for Inspection of Plant Protection Products, shall exercise the functions of harmonisation and contrast of inspection methods and techniques, and shall carry out the tests or tests which, for the purposes of arbitration or for other purposes, are requested to them, as provided for in Article 47 (4) of Law 43/2002 of 20 November of plant health.

Among these functions will be the work of developing procedure protocols and inspection methods not established by technical standards, coordinating the update of the Manual of Inspection of the different application teams, carry out analyses and tests for arbitrary effects when requested by the competent bodies of the autonomous communities at the request of the ITEAF (Product Application Equipment Inspection Stations). (a) to improve the inspection techniques of the plant, and to improve the inspection techniques the said test stations.

In the process of drafting this order, the autonomous communities and the most representative entities of the affected sectors have been consulted:

In its virtue, I have:

Single item. Designation of the National Reference Laboratory for Plant Protection Products Application Equipment Inspections.

Is designated as the National Reference Laboratory for the Inspection of Equipment for the Application of Plant Protection Products to the Agrarian Mechanization Center, of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development of the Generalitat de Catalonia, located in Lerida.

Final disposition first. Competence title.

This order is dictated by the provisions of Article 149.1.13a of the Constitution, which give the State exclusive competence in the field of bases and coordination of the general planning of economic activity.

Final disposition second. Entry into force.

This provision shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Gazette of the State.

Madrid, May 16, 2012. -Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Miguel Arias Cañete.