European Minor Uses Coordination Facility (MUCF)

Because of the extensive data packages required for authorization to market plant protection products, growers face increasing difficulties in gaining authorization for “minor uses”.  Minor uses of pesticides are uses on niche crops with a high economic value for farmers, but usually of low economic interest for the agro-pesticide industry. This leads to a lack of authorized products on the market for farmers to use on these crops which in turn can lead to illegal uses or to loss of crop production. These crops include most vegetables, fruit, nurseries, flowers, forest trees and some arable crops. It is estimated that overall they represent more than € 70 billion per year, which equates to 22% of the total EU plant production value.

To address this problem in a more coherent way the European Commission (EC) has established the EU Minor Uses Coordination Facility (MUCF). The Facility started as of 1st September 2015 and is hosted by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation (EPPO) in Paris.

The mission of the Facility is ’to enable farmers in the EU to produce high quality crops by filling minor uses gaps through efficient collaboration to improve availability of chemical and non-chemical tools within an integrated pest management (IPM) framework’.

Initially, the Coordination Facility was jointly funded by the EU and the governments of France, Germany and the Netherlands. On 15 April 2018 the Grant Agreement with the European Commission expired. Since 15 April 2018 the MUCF is fully depending on voluntary assessed contributions from Member countries (EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland).

The Coordination Facility liaises with all Member States, growers associations and other organizations active internationally in the field of minor uses, such as OECD and IR-4 project. The Coordination Facility stimulates and supports further harmonization e.g. in relation to crop group and pest group definitions and is in the process of developing guidance documents.

The Coordination Facility is maintaining the European Minor Uses Database (EUMUDA) as a key structure to identify minor uses gaps, share information on them and cooperate to find solutions. The launch of the new EUMUDA took place on 28 June 2017.

The Coordination Facility is working on the development of non-chemical and IPM routes to solve minor use problems together with Commodity Expert Groups. In that respect the Coordination Facility will establish a strong link with research networks on IPM (C-IPM ERANET).

Recent News

The 20th Newsletter is available

Read about the last CEGs and HEG and ReEG meetings held in 2024 second semester.

Click here to access the 20th Newsletter of the MUCF.

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Meetings

Upcoming Meetings organised by MUCF

CEG Seeds 31 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
CEG Ornamentals 31 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
CEG Hops 31 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
CEG Fruits & Vegetables 30 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
CEG Hops 30 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
CEG Herbs & Spices 30 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
CEG Tobacco 30 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
Residue Expert Group 29 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
HEG 29 October 2024 , Budapest, Hungary	+
Annual General Meeting (AGM) 27 September 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
test 10 to 17 September 2024 , test, Tropical Asia	+
CEG Tobacco 26 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
Residues Expert Group 22 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
CEG Seeds 21 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
CEG Hops 20 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
HEG Meeting 19 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
CEG Herbs & Spices 14 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
CEG Ornamentals 4 March 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+
CEG Fruits & Vegetables 22 February 2024 , Remote Meeting , Europe	+

Meetings attended by MUCF

28 February 2024 , Paris, France OECD Working Party on Pesticides, 9th Meeting	+
5 to 8 February 2024 , Madrid, Spain Global Minor Use Summit IV	+
5 to 7 December 2023 , Braunschweig, Germany Zonal Authorisation Procedure Improvements and Development Workshop	+

See all our meetings