Bixlozone approved in the EU until April 2036

The European Commission approved the active substance bixlozone on 31 March 2026. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/747, published in the Official Journal on 1 April 2026, sets an approval period running from 21 April 2026 to 21 April 2036.

Article 1 is short: the active substance bixlozone, as specified in Annex I, is approved, subject to the conditions laid down in that Annex. Article 2 adds it as entry 178 to the list maintained under Implementing Regulation (EU) No 540/2011.

What the Annex requires

• Minimum purity of the active substance: ≥ 960 g/kg.
• The impurity TBAB shall not exceed 2 g/kg in the technical material.
• The applicant must submit confirmatory information on technical specifications, metabolite toxicity and effects of water treatment processes by 21 April 2028.

The substance is identified by CAS number 81777-95-9; the IUPAC name is 2-(2,4-dichlorobenzyl)-4,4-dimethylisoxazolidin-3-one.

What this approval does not do

It does not permit anyone to use bixlozone.

Approval under Regulation (EC) No 1107/2009 operates at Union level and concerns the substance. Products containing an approved substance are authorised nationally, and Article 28(1) of the same regulation is explicit that a plant protection product shall not be placed on the market or used unless it has been authorised in the member state concerned.

So the sequence is: the substance is approved centrally; a company applies for authorisation of a specific formulated product in a specific member state; that member state decides, and its decision names the crops, the pests, the maximum rate, the intervals and the conditions. Two member states can authorise the same product on different terms, and one can decline entirely.

Until a national authorisation exists, an approved substance is a substance that may be used in products, in a market where no product containing it is yet legal to apply.

Why the stage matters

This item is marked in force, because the approval period has begun. That label is not decoration. AgricultureID distinguishes proposals, open consultations, adopted-but-not-yet-effective measures, measures in force, superseded measures, official guidance and regulatory decisions — because a reader acting on a proposal as though it were law is the failure mode that matters most in regulatory reporting.

A great deal of agricultural regulatory coverage reports consultations as decisions. Where an item here is a proposal, the page will say so above the text.