EU moves on pesticide reduction

THE European Parliament’s environment committee voted last week to force member states to reduce by at least 50% use of pesticides “of very high concern” and those classified as “toxic or very toxic”.

The environment committee voted 58 to three, with two abstentions, in favour of reducing pesticide use. The full parliament’s vote on the pesticides package is scheduled for mid-January.

Before legislation can come into force in mid-2010 difficult negotiations are likely between the parliament and EU agriculture ministers, who want different regulations for northern, central, and southern regions of the EU, and exceptional five-year authorisations of hazardous substances if bans pose serious risk to crop production.

The European Crop Protection Association said that some of the more extreme cut-off criteria proposed in the parliament were strategically dropped for last week’s vote, but remaining criteria still had no scientific or practical basis, and did not take into account the needs of agriculture to efficiently sustain the European food supply.

Amid growing public concern over the impact of pesticides, the European Commission made proposals in July, 2006, aimed at protecting human health and the environment from dangerous or excessive use in agriculture.