MEPs reject Commission proposal to allow higher pesticide level in imported foods

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.

The proposal was rejected with 386 MEPs votes in favour, 186 against and 52 abstentions. The Commission must now withdraw it. 

Thiacloprid is an active ingredient of the class of neonicotinoids. This group of substances is widely used at global scale because of their efficacy on many products, such as cotton, vegetables, tea, fruit and potatoes. But their ecological impact, particularly on bees and pollinators, pushed the EU to adopt progressive restrictions on their use since 2013. 

“It took the Commission many years to ban this dangerous pesticide,” said Salomé Roynel,  policy officer at the Pesticide Action Network Europe, “and now it tried to maintain incredibly high levels in food like tea or strawberries”.

“The use of this health- and bee-harming pesticide would continue elsewhere, while the health of EU consumers, particularly pregnant women and babies, would also be put at risk,” she added, “applaud[ing] the Members of the European Parliament for stepping in to prevent this from happening”.

Staying at zero

The motion approved in the European Parliament means that the thiacloprid Maximum Residue Level (MRL) in imported foods stays at the so-called technical zero level.

According to the EU rules, MRL is the highest level of pesticide residue tolerated in food or feed. When a pesticide is banned in the EU, the MRL for that substance on imported products is fixed at 0.01 mg/kg, the technical zero.

But the Commission, after the advice of the European Food Safety Authority, may propose to raise the MRL on imports, based on an application calling for taking into account the specific conditions of agricultural production in non-EU countries. 

It is the second time in a few months that the European Parliament uses its veto power on the pesticides rules concerning MRL in imported foods. 

Last December, MEPs rejected a similar proposal to allow in the EU market rice produced using tricyclazole, a fungicide whose use is banned for European growers.

The MEPs’ reasoning behind these initiatives refers to health and environmental concerns and a principle of reciprocity of requirements between the European and third-country food producers.

As explained by Pascal Canfin, Chair of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety in the European Parliament on the occasion of the decision on tricyclazole, the Commission proposal allowing higher MRL on imported foodstuffs is also a form of “unfair competition” not acceptable “for our farmers”.

[Edited by Nathalie Weatherald]

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