The vote in the European Parliament’s environment committee yesterday (Tuesday, October 24) to drastically reduce the use of pesticides in the EU has been slammed as “hardline” and “unrealistic” by Copa Cogeca, the federation of EU farm organisations and agri co-operatives.
The environment committee voted in favour of halving pesticide usage in the EU over the next six years.
The committee met yesterday morning, with its MEPs voting by 47 votes to 37 (with two abstentions) in favour of reducing pesticide use in the EU by at least 50% by 2030.
As well as that, the committee is also calling for a reduction of 65% for “more hazardous products” (for example, pesticides containing non-approved substances used via time-limited, nationally approved emergency authorisations).
Importantly, the proposal from the environment committee would result in an outright ban on the use of pesticides (expect those approved for organic farming and biological control) on “sensitive areas”, which includes Natura 2000 sites.
Copa said that this vote by the environment MEPs was expected, and that the vote goes further than the European Commission’s proposal for revising the Sustainable Use Regulation (SUR) for plant protection products (PPP), which the commission published in June 2022 and which, according to Copa, was “already completely out of touch with farming on-ground realities”.
“The result is that the environment committee’s proposal will go through the plenary session (full session of the parliament) with unrealistic targets, impractical provisions such as on sensitive areas, and with few concrete solutions to offer when acceptable compromises could have been made,” the farm group said.
“The proposal voted in the environment committee would have unprecedented consequences for the whole of European agriculture if voted the same way in plenary later this year.”
Copa added: “No study has been carried out EU-wide on the scope of the provisions included in the environment committee report.
The main issues with the environment committee’s proposal highlighted by Copa include an (at least) 50% EU-wide reduction for chemical plant protection products; a 65% reduction for hazardous plant protection products; national targets based on “complex” calculation methodology; and the specific ban of plant protection products in sensitive areas.
“We’re clearly in the context of political posturing, with no real assessment of the consequences of such a vote,” the group said.
“All studies carried out on the commission’s proposal have already pointed to major production cuts, seriously impacting our strategic autonomy.”
According to Copa, the regulatory ambitions in the committee’s proposal are not balanced by support and compensatory measures.
“We continue to be left with an approach that does not consider what has already been achieved in the past in terms of implementing practices in integrated pest management, and even neglecting the idea of looking at technical solutions or alternatives,” the farm oganisation said.
It added: “This unworkable proposal will now go to plenary, where debates are once again likely to be politically exploited and polarised to the extreme.”
Copa called on MEPs in the plenary session of parliament to “be pragmatic and above all focus on concrete solutions”.