Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe has called for other EU regions or countries to follow the lead of Brussels in its implementation of new plant protection regulations.
The new law, passed on July 17 in Brussels, states that only the use of low-risk plant protection products is authorised in the territory of the Brussels-Capital Region.
The law will come into place during 2025, which will only allow products with low-risk active substances, safeners and synergists contained in it.
Plant products used from this time should not contain a “substance of concern”, should be “sufficiently effective”, and should not cause “unnecessary pain and suffering” to control vertebrates.
Plant protection products other than low-risk ones may be used for any space accessible to the public in the region.
The Minister responsible for the Environment will be responsible for implementing the decree.
Plant protection
The minister may grant temporary derogations of up to one year for the use of certain plant protection products under exceptional emergency situations, in terms of plant protection that “cannot be controlled by other reasonable means”.
PAN Europe stated that the decision “creates a precedent”, as the first EU region has taken such a decision to “protect citizens’ health and the environment against pesticides”.
Article 4 of EU Directive 2009/128/EC requires member states to establish action plans aimed at setting objectives, measures, and timetables to reduce risks of pesticide use on human health and the environment.
PAN Europe’s executive director, Martin Dermine said: “Since 2009, the European Commission has done nothing to ensure that member states implement the directive, which is supposed to protect citizens.”
“Because of their inaction, children playing in their gardens adjacent to agricultural fields, or in public parks are directly exposed to neurotoxic or endocrine-disrupting pesticides.
“It is thus quite ironic that the seat of the European Commission, which is so reluctant to protect citizens and the environment against harmful pesticides, is located in the first pesticide-free region of the EU,” Dermine said.