EU member states call for new pesticide impact assessment

The Twenty-Seven endorsed, Monday, December 19, their request for a new impact study on the regulations aimed at slashing the use of pesticides in the European Union (EU), delaying discussions on this text, to the great dam of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), already outraged by the extension for one year of the authorization of glyphosate.

The European Commission had detailed, at the end of June, its roadmap to halve by 2030, compared to the period 2015-2017, the use and risks at EU level of chemical pesticides or dangerous, by almost completely banishing them from protected natural areas.

This draft text had aroused fierce resistance from some of the Member States, worried about the fate of farmers left ″without alternative″ and a possible fall in agricultural yields, while the war launched in Ukraine by Russia disrupts the world markets for cereals and fertilizers.

Concern of environmental NGOs

After a recent discussion between the Agriculture Ministers of the Twenty-Seven, the Member States ″Ask the Commission to provide an additional study″ on the text within six months, said the Czech EU Presidency on Monday evening. The impact study previously carried out ″is based on data collected before the outbreak of war in Ukraine″ and could ″failing to consider the long-term impact on food security″ EU, the statement said. This study ″does not provide adequate quantitative analyzes regarding the potential impact on the agricultural sector and the potential increase in European food dependency″he adds.

Waiting, ″Only work at the technical level on the points not concerned will continue″notes the press release, recalling that the Twenty-Seven are also waiting ″flexibilities″ in the national objectives assigned to each State.

Environmental NGOs fear in particular that the delay caused by the wait for a new study will prevent the regulations from being adopted before the European elections of 2024 – they will ultimately have to be the subject of negotiations between the States and the MEPs.

″It is a strategy to kill this anti-pesticide plan, using the food crisis linked to Ukraine as justification, but this opposition is part of the protection of big agricultural interests″estimated, at the beginning of December, Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, expert of the Austrian NGO Global 2000 and co-initiator of the initiative ″Save Bees and Farmers″.

Glyphosate authorization extended for at least one year

Moreover, in the absence of consensus between the Member States on the subject, the European Commission formally adopted, at the beginning of December, its decision to extend for one year the authorization of glyphosate in the EU, pending a scientific evaluation. crucial on this controversial herbicide. The current authorisation, renewed in 2017, expired on December 15.

However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) announced in May the postponement to July 2023 of a long-awaited study on ″the risks of exposure to glyphosate for animals, humans and the environment″. This evaluation is considered essential to decide whether or not to extend, for five years, the authorization issued to the herbicide.