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Green groups go to court over EU MRLs![qrcode]()
Sep. 3, 2008
EU environmentalist groups have taken legal action against the European Commission's new rules on pesticide maximum residue limits (MRLs), which came into force on September 1st. Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe claims the new legislation will allow MRLs to "dramatically increase" and will violate food safety. The new EU pesticide MRL Regulation (396/2005) harmonises MRLs by replacing national limits with EU-wide standards.
The case involves EU Regulation 149/2008, which was issued by the Commission earlier this year and lists temporary EU MRLs for specific active ingredient/crop combinations. The temporary limits apply from September 1st until the final EU MRLs have been established. In April, PAN Europe and Natuur en Milieu, an umbrella group of European health and environmental organisations, asked the Commission to carry out an internal review of the temporary MRLs. However, the Commission's Health and Consumer Safety Directorate General refused and said that the request was inadmissible on a legal technicality. In response, the two environmentalist groups have filed an appeal to the EU Court of First Instance. They expect the Court to give its opinion in early 2009.
The groups claim that Regulation 149/2008 is "fundamentally flawed" and challenge the manner in which the MRLs were established. They quote a 2007 report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which noted that the Commission had based temporary MRLs on the highest national MRL for each pesticide. The Commission says that the EFSA's recommended revisions were incorporated into Regulation 149/2008. "The Commission has failed to deliver on its obligation to set legal limits at the lowest achievable level,"says Hans Muilerman, spokesperson for Natuur en Milieu. There is also no consideration of the cumulative effects that pesticides have on human health, he adds.
The groups also highlight an analysis by Greenpeace and the Austrian environmentalist organisation, Global 2000. The analysis concludes that MRLs in Germany will be replaced by EU limits that are "mostly far higher". It also claims that the new MRLs will result in the EU's own standards for acute reference dose and acceptable daily intake being exceeded.
By contrast, the new MRLs rules have been welcomed by the Commission and the European agrochemical industry. The Commission says that the legislation will strengthen food safety in the EU. Traders and importers will be able to do business smoothly, as confusion over dealing with 27 lists of national MRLs is eliminated, it points out. The European Crop Protection Association says that the EU MRLs will enhance transparency and harmonisation. MRLs are trading standards and are set well within acceptable safety limits, it stresses.
Source: Agrow
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