Pesticides Proposal Rejected in Plenary, Next Steps a SUR-prise
Agricultural and Rural Convention
2023.11.23
The European Parliament has outright rejected a proposal on the EU’s plan to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030 after the core of its substance was lost in the voting process – but the Council says it will still continue work on the file. So what does this mean for its future? Natasha Foote reports.
The contentious sustainable use of pesticides regulation (SUR) proposal aims to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030, as set out in the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy.
After months of back and forth, the European Parliament voted to reject outright the proposal during the plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday (22 November) after a concerted campaign from the right of the Parliament saw a flurry of amendments which ultimately gutted the draft text of its substance.
Most notably, the text proposed a weaker stance on national pesticide reduction targets, which would have been capped at 35%, as well as on pesticide use in sensitive areas, which sources told ARC would have offered “no protection for vulnerable human populations, nature areas, or water resources”.
Meanwhile, the resulting text also eroded financial or advisory support for integrated pest management (IPM).
A call to send the text back to the Parliament’s environment committee for reshaping was also rejected by the plenary, meaning it is effectively a dead end for the file.
The European Parliament has outright rejected a proposal on the EU’s plan to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030 after the core of its substance was lost in the voting process – but the Council says it will still continue work on the file. So what does this mean for its future? Natasha Foote reports.
The contentious sustainable use of pesticides regulation (SUR) proposal aims to slash the use and risk of pesticides in half by 2030, as set out in the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy.
After months of back and forth, the European Parliament voted to reject outright the proposal during the plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday (22 November) after a concerted campaign from the right of the Parliament saw a flurry of amendments which ultimately gutted the draft text of its substance.
Most notably, the text proposed a weaker stance on national pesticide reduction targets, which would have been capped at 35%, as well as on pesticide use in sensitive areas, which sources told ARC would have offered “no protection for vulnerable human populations, nature areas, or water resources”.
Meanwhile, the resulting text also eroded financial or advisory support for integrated pest management (IPM).
A call to send the text back to the Parliament’s environment committee for reshaping was also rejected by the plenary, meaning it is effectively a dead end for the file.
Read more here.