(1)

Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 lays down the procedure for the establishment of rules in respect of flavouring substances used or intended to be used in foodstuffs. That Regulation provides for the adoption of a register of flavouring substances (the register) following notification by the Member States of a list of the flavouring substances which may be used in or in on foodstuffs marketed in their territory and on the basis of scrutiny by the Commission of that notification.

(2)

In addition, Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 provides for a programme of evaluation of the flavouring substances contained in the register (the evaluation programme) in order to check if those substances comply within the general criteria for their use set out in the Annex to that Regulation. Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 provides that the persons responsible for placing the flavouring substances on the market are to forward data necessary for their evaluation to the Commission. That Regulation also provides that following completion of the evaluation programme, the list of flavouring substances the use of which is to be authorised to the exclusion of others, is to be adopted.

(3)

By Decision 1999/217/EC (2) the Commission adopted, pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 2232/96, a register of flavouring substances used in or on foodstuffs.

(4)

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1565/2000 of 18 July 2000 laying down the measures necessary for the adoption of an evaluation programme in application of Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3), provides for certain information to be submitted by the person responsible for placing certain flavouring substances contained in the register on the market in order to enable the evaluation of the substance to be carried out.

(5)

For 148 substances no information has been submitted nor has the Commission been informed about any intention to still submit information. Therefore, those substances cannot be evaluated in respect of their compliance with the general criteria for the use of flavouring substances set out in Regulation (EC) No 2232/96. Accordingly, it is appropriate to delete those substances from the register.

(6)

In application of Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 and Commission Recommendation 98/282/EC of 21 April 1998 on the ways in which the Member States and the signatory States to the Agreement on the European Economic Area should protect intellectual property in connection with the development and manufacture of flavouring substances referred to in Regulation (EC) No 2232/96 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4), for a number of substances, the notifying Member States requested that they should be registered in such a way as to protect the intellectual property rights of the manufacturer.

(7)

Protection for those substances, listed in Part B of the register, is limited to a maximum period of five years following the date of receipt of the notification. That period has now expired for the four remaining substances which should consequently be transferred to Part A of the register.

(8)

Decision 1999/217/EC should therefore be amended accordingly.

(9)

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health,