Press releases
Pesticide Action Network Europe (PAN Europe) has welcomed the European Commission's intention to proceed with its proposal to ban the use of pesticides in productive Ecological Focus Areas (EFA) as soon as possible and in time for the 2017/18 planting season at the latest. The proposal is being made in the context of the simplification of the 2013 CAP reform based on experience to date.
Today, the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) has organised a conference in the European Parliament on the importance of pesticides in EU agriculture. The fallacious century-old “we need to feed the world” argument is still regularly claimed by the pesticide industry to support a model that is a dead end: low-efficiency, high health costs, low employment rate, high environmental impacts. The real inconvenient truth is the conventional agriculture model has failed in Europe.
The draft legal act proposed last June by EU Commission on the criteria to identify endocrine disrupting pesticides/biocides has generated so far little support by EU Member States in the Commission’s Standing Committee meetings. The Commission now has no choice but to radically change their draft in order to find a (qualified) majority among Member States in the next meeting.
Today, 26th October 2016, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published its annual report on pesticide residues found in food in the EU member states. Year after year, the proportion of food without detectable residues is decreasing while the proportion of food that contains residues from multiple pesticides is increasing... Gooseberries, currants and strawberries are among the favourite fruits of children. Having a fresh orange or grape fruit juice is seen as a healthy habit.
In a “state of the science” review released today, PAN International presents a large body of research documenting the adverse human health and environmental impacts of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides and underscores the need for a global phase-out. Environmental and health advocates say the monograph on the world’s most widely used herbicide, commonly known by its original trade name Roundup, should serve as a wake up call for regulators, governments and users around the world.
Today the Agricultural Council will be discussing measures to streamline or simplify the CAP greening payments. 18 member States oppose the European Commission’s proposal to ban use of pesticides in the Ecological Focus Areas.
PAN Europe appeals to the European Commission to maintain their proposal for the ban of pesticides in ecological focus areas. The current proposal is a simple and logical way for EU citizens to recognize the importance and intent of ecological focus areas.
PAN Europe just won a legal case at the European Court of Justice against the EU Commission (DG Trade), for refusing to provide access to documents with information on endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Finally, a breath of fresh air for European democracy!
EFSA additionally thinks that due to the growing resistance of weeds against herbicides, for every crop in the EU, a range of herbicides need to be available with a different working spectrum. In some cases even 4 different classes of herbicides. This means that if three classes of herbicides are available for a given crop, the derogation still can be applied for the classified herbicide as the number 4 herbicide.
PAN Europe enthusiastically applauds the decision by Italy’s Ministry of Health to place a number of restrictions on the use of Glyphosate, one of the world’s most ubiquitous pesticides.
Commissioner Andriukaitis' choice for option 2 of the EU 2014-Roadmap already would lead to banning only a few pesticides, Impact endocrine criteria - PAN Europe, but by changing on top of this the legal text and the derogation from negligible exposure to negligible risk (option B of roadmap) zero endocrine disrupting (ED) pesticides will be banned.
