Papers Today

// MEPs stick to their guns on pesticide approvals

The European parliament's environment committee has reaffirmed its first-reading position on plans to revise EU pesticide approval rules. The committee backed more stringent rules in a second-reading vote on Wednesday. MEPs also reiterated their position on a draft directive to reduce pesticide use.

Regarding pesticide approvals, MEPs restated their support for hazard-based criteria for deciding approval of the most dangerous pesticides. Governments also support this. Industry has repeatedly argued for risk-based criteria.

Wednesday's vote means that active ingredients that are carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic (CMRs), endocrine disrupters, or persistent organic pollutants (POPs) would be banned rather than subject to a risk assessment.  The committee accepted derogations for carcinogenic and reprotoxic substances as proposed by EU governments earlier this year, but only under stricter conditions.  MEPs also dropped a stricter definition of POPs approved at first reading as proposed by Green rapporteur Hiltrud Breyer in October.  A source of contention with governments going forward will be MEPs' proposal to ban substances deemed to pose a significant risk to development of the nervous or immune systems.  New controls to ensure active ingredients are non-toxic to bees may also provoke disagreement. And MEPs will clash with governments and the commission over a proposed trizonal geographical system for market approvals, which the environment committee rejected for the second time on Wednesday.  Advisor to the Greens Axel Singhofen called it "detrimental to member state responsibility". The parliament wants tougher rules than governments on the substitution of certain pesticides by safer alternatives. Earlier this month, a leaked commission report recorded the highest ever pesticide contamination levels in the EU. On sustainable pesticide use, MEPs re-introduced an EU target for halving pesticide use by 2013 for chemicals of "very high concern" and "toxic and very toxic" chemicals. This is likely to be the biggest stumbling block in forthcoming negotiations with council. MEPs also re-introduced a requirement for pesticide-free buffer zones around watercourses.  The committee added detail on public areas qualifying for partial restrictions on pesticide use.  Negotiations with council on the two draft pesticide laws will now proceed before a plenary vote in December or January. Follow-up: Environment committee http://www.europarl.europa.eu/comparl/envi/default_en.htm plus press release http://www.endseuropedaily.com/docs/81105b.doc plus reactions from the EPP-ED group http://www.epp-ed.org/press/showPR.asp?PRControlDocTypeID=1&PRControlID=7977&PRContentID=13856&PRContentLg=en and Greens http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/pressreleases/dok/256/256644.pesticides@fr.htm.  See also reactions from Pan-Europe and Heal http://www.endseuropedaily.com/docs/81105a.pdf Republished with permission of ENDS Europe DAILY. ENDS Europe DAILY is Europe’s leading news service on EU environmental policy. Get all the latest legislative developments in one concise daily email with vital follow-up links. A 14-day, no obligation trial is available from http://www.endseuropedaily.com/web/friendsofirishenv. For further information email zoey.broyd@haymarket.com.