A report published on Thursday (18 April) by several European NGOs shows that stopping the export of banned pesticides to Europe would have minimal economic effects, and calls on the EU to put a stop to it.
France will put on hold the rollout of its national plant protection reduction plan and may adopt an EU measurement indicator to measure a molecule toxicity factor despite criticism from NGOs.
Topics such as the changing of food habits and who bears the cost for the transition are politically sensitive and are not addressed in the debate on sustainable food systems, said EFSA director Bernhard Url, who is expected to leave in May after 10 years at the helm of the Authority.
In a major blow to the EU's Green Deal and Farm to Fork framework, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday (6 February) that she will withdraw the Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR), which sought to halve pesticide use by 2030.
Six European NGOs and five in France announced on Thursday they had filed two separate requests to the European Commission for an “internal review”, the first step of a legal challenge, over the recent reapproval of the contentious but widely used weedkiller glyphosate.
The European Parliament objected to raising the limit of the maximum quantity of residues of the insecticide thiacloprid, banned in the EU from 2020, on more than 30 products coming from third countries.
Most EU agriculture ministers have voiced their resolve to continue work on the EU’s contentious pesticide regulation, despite the European Parliament voting against the file and further negotiations on it.
New genomic techniques are unavoidable and could considerably reduce the use of pesticides without affecting food production, some European agricultural players have argued, though NGOs and environmental groups have been sceptical.
European Parliament's political groups envisage a more active role for the EU executive in favouring the uptake of low-risk alternatives to chemical pesticides, according to a preparatory document seen by Euractiv.
EU countries did not meet the required qualified majority to approve the European Commission's proposed 10-year extension for the use of the contentious herbicide glyphosate, with the next crucial vote to be held in the first half of November.
Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides defended the key points of the EU executive’s proposal to re-approve the contentious herbicide glyphosate, signalling that the expected tweaks to the text at this point are likely to be relatively minor.
Austria will vote against the European Commission’s proposal to renew the approval of glyphosate, the country’s agriculture ministry confirmed on Monday (25 September).
German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir said he is against extending the approval of glyphosate as proposed by the European Commission and is lobbying other countries to join his resistance.
The European Commission has proposed to renew the approval of glyphosate - a common and contentious herbicide - for a period of 10 years, with a number of restrictions.
The agriculture ministers of Spain and Germany have opposite views on what the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) recent verdict on glyphosate should mean for the decision on re-approving the contentious herbicide.
The vote on the EU’s proposed pesticides regulation in the European Parliament’s agriculture committee has been pushed back to October, further narrowing the window to reach an agreement ahead of next year’s EU elections.
The European Commission's impact assessment and update on the EU's pesticide cuts plan sparked mixed reactions among stakeholders and lawmakers, sparking calls to stop stalling the reform and caveats about consequences for European agriculture.
In its long-awaited verdict on the risk posed by the divisive herbicide glyphosate, EU food safety authority EFSA has found 'no critical areas of concern,' although it said data gaps did not allow conclusions on certain aspects.
The EU plan to cut pesticide use and risk in half by 2030 will have its largest impact on crops having 'little or no impact on food security', the European Commission predicted in its additional impact assessment requested by EU ministers.
Head of the European Parliament Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI), Pascal Canfin, wants to hold a hearing with agrochemical giants Bayer and Syngenta after researchers accused them of withholding information on the brain toxicity risk of pesticides.
It is possible to reduce pesticide use with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods while ensuring farms remain economically profitable, a network of European farmers told MEPs in the European Parliament's agriculture committee.
The German government is sticking by its campaign promise to take the controversial herbicide glyphosate off the market by the end of the year. But if Brussels renews the substance's approval, a German national ban may become difficult to uphold.
The European Commission has ruled out tweaking its reform of the EU's plant protection products framework after a citizens' initiative demanded more ambitious targets in curbing synthetic pesticide use.
The Commission has approved a request from EU agriculture ministers for a further impact assessment on plans to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030, but warns it does not have much more information to offer.
