No derogation possible of Neonicotinoids from the European ban: French Council of State

Following a judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union on January 19, the Council of State has ruled that the exemptions for using neonicotinoids for the cultivation of sugar beets, temporarily granted in 2021 and 2022, are illegal. 

No derogation is possible if the European Commission has formally banned a pesticide.

While neonicotinoids have been banned in France and Europe since 2018, the government had granted temporary exemptions, based on a law of December 14, 2020, for the use of two of them – imidacloprid and thiamethoxam – in 2021 then in 2022 for sugar beet crops¹. These derogations, authorizing seeds treated with these pesticides, aimed to protect crops from massive infestations of disease-carrying aphids. Several associations of farmers, beekeepers and environmental protection groups have asked the Council of State to cancel these derogatory authorizations.

European law allows a Member State to grant a temporary derogation enabling the use of a pesticide not approved in Europe if there is a serious risk for agriculture and in the absence of any other solution². However, on January 19, ruling on a preliminary question posed by the Belgian Council of State, the Court of Justice of the European Union specified, for the first time, that when the European Commission has expressly prohibited, by regulation the use of seeds treated with a given plant protection product, a Member State may not grant a temporary derogation authorizing the placing on the market of this product for seed treatment or the use of seeds treated with using this product³.

Such a ban had precisely been decided for imidacloprid and thiamethoxam in May 2018⁴. It follows directly from the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union that the derogations allowing their use for sugar beet crops granted in 2021 and 2022 were, given this ban, illegal. The Council of State, therefore, declares its cancellation.

Read the decision

(https://www.conseil-etat.fr/Media/actualites/documents/2023/avril-2023/450155-et-suivants.pdf)

References:

1 Arrêté du 5 février 2021 et arrêté du 31 janvier 2022
2 Article 53 du règlement (CE) n° 1107/2009 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 21 octobre 2009 concernant la mise sur le marché des produits phytopharmaceutiques et abrogeant les directives 79/117/CEE et 91/414/CEE du Conseil
3 Arrêt C-162/21 du 19 janvier 2023 de Cour de justice de l’Union européenne
4 Règlements d’exécution 2018/783 et 2018/785 du 29 mai 2018